Posted On Sep 6, 2024 / by McArdle Franco / News
On September 5, 2024, the Fourth District Court of Appeal affirmed an order obtained by McArdle Franco PLLC at the trial level, vacating a nearly one-year-old default judgment. At the trial level our firm argued that, even though the judgment was over a year old, we met a 3-prong test to vacate the judgment to allow us to defend the case on the merits.
The argument hinged on the fact that our client’s non-managerial employee, who appeared on the certificate of service as having been served, had no recollection of receiving these papers. There was no email trace discussing the case and the papers had not been filed in the defendant’s physical legal file, as would ordinarily be done. Our firm and the client’s management learned of the lawsuit only after the plaintiff served the defendant with discovery to collect on the judgment. The McArdle Franco team immediately kicked into gear and filed a motion to vacate within hours of learning of the suit.
At the trial level, the Court ordered that the parties conduct discovery on the issues raised by our motion and held an evidentiary hearing to consider our argument and the evidence. Ultimately, the court ruled in favor of our client, vacating the judgment. The plaintiff appealed and, following briefing, per curium affirmed the trial court’s order.