Richards v. Multinex Co. Ltd.

Background

Thomas Richards sued Multinex Co. Ltd., doing business as Nerdy, asserting several claims, including a claim under Section 51 of the New York Civil Rights Law. He alleged that Multinex used his likeness and image on a T-shirt without his authorization.

Multinex was served on October 6, 2019, but did not appear or otherwise defend the action. The Clerk issued a certificate of default. After an earlier motion for default judgment was denied in part concerning the timeliness of the Section 51 claims, the Second Circuit determined that Richards was a minor when the relevant events occurred. It ruled that the one-year limitations period began on his eighteenth birthday, October 5, 2018, and that his complaint, filed on July 17, 2019, was timely. Richards then renewed his motion for default judgment on the Section 51 claims.

Legal standard

A default judgment is a judgment entered against a party that fails to plead or otherwise defend. The court must accept the non-defaulting party’s well-pleaded factual allegations as true, but it must independently decide whether those allegations establish legal liability. Legal conclusions are not automatically admitted merely because the defendant failed to respond.

Decision

Section 51 prohibits using a person’s name, portrait, picture, or voice in New York for advertising or trade without written consent and provides a civil claim for violations. The court reviewed Richards’s allegations and the requirements of the claim and found that he had met his burden of proof. The court therefore granted Richards’s motion for default judgment.

Next step

The court directed the Clerk to terminate the motion and referred the matter to Magistrate Judge Henry J. Ricardo for an inquest into damages. The opinion grants default judgment but does not determine the amount of damages.