Board of Trustees of the Cement Masons Health and Welfare Trust Fund for…

Nature of the Order

The court issued a notice concerning the procedure for seeking default judgment under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 55(b)(2). This was not a decision granting or denying default judgment. The text states that the Clerk had entered default against Mercoza.

Deadlines and Filing Requirements

Any motion for default judgment had to be filed by January 10, 2025. Requests for more time had to follow Civil Local Rule 6-3. The motion also had to comply with Civil Local Rule 7 and the structure in Attachment A.

If no opposition was filed by the deadline under Rule 7, the moving party instead had to file proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law by the reply deadline. The moving party also had to email those proposed findings in Microsoft Word format to the court’s listed email address. The court stated that no chambers copies were required.

Standards Identified in Attachment A

Attachment A instructed the plaintiff to address the legal and factual requirements for default judgment, including:

- subject-matter jurisdiction and personal jurisdiction; - adequate service of process; - the factors identified in Eitel v. McCool, including possible prejudice, the merits of the claims, the sufficiency of the complaint, the amount at stake, disputes about material facts, possible excusable neglect, and the federal preference for decisions on the merits; and - the requested relief, including damages, attorney’s fees, and costs.

The attachment stated that factual allegations other than those concerning damages are generally treated as admitted after default, but that conclusions of law and facts that are not adequately pleaded are not established by default. It also stated that damages are not accepted as true merely because the defendant defaulted. Any default judgment would be limited by Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 54(c) and could not differ in kind from, or exceed in amount, what was demanded in the pleadings.

Service of the Notice and Disposition

The court ordered the plaintiff to serve the notice on all other parties and then file proof of service. The provided text does not show that the court entered default judgment, awarded damages, awarded fees or costs, or ruled on the merits of the claims.

The judge’s name is not reliably readable in the provided opinion text; the signature line is garbled. Accordingly, this summary refers to the issuing authority as the court rather than guessing a judge’s name.