McMahon v. BJW Realty LLC

Background

The order addressed Ambassador Construction Co., Inc., which had not appeared in the case. The plaintiffs served Ambassador with their Third Amended Complaint on June 25, 2025, and BJW Realty LLC served Ambassador with its answer and crossclaims on July 14, 2025. The plaintiffs obtained a clerk’s certificate of default. BJW Realty LLC was both a defendant and a cross-claimant.

United States of Aritzia Inc. also asserted crossclaims against Ambassador and indicated that it intended to seek default judgment. Although Aritzia filed its answer and crossclaims on August 7, 2025, it had not filed proof of service on Ambassador on the docket.

Court’s Orders

The court ordered Aritzia to serve Ambassador with its answer and crossclaims, if it had not already done so, and to file proof of service on the docket no later than August 29, 2025. The court also ordered BJW Realty LLC to file a letter by that date stating whether it intended to seek default judgment against Ambassador.

The parties who had appeared submitted a proposed consent to have a magistrate judge conduct all proceedings. The court explained that a magistrate judge cannot enter a default judgment against a party unless that defaulting party consents to the magistrate judge’s authority to enter a final judgment. The court therefore declined, for now, to approve the consent form until Ambassador’s status had been resolved as to all claims asserted against it by all parties.

The court ordered the plaintiffs to serve Ambassador with a copy of the order and file proof of service on the docket by August 29, 2025. Until Ambassador’s status was resolved, Judge Furman would continue to preside over the case for all purposes. The order did not enter a default judgment or decide the parties’ underlying claims.