Wood v. County of Contra Costa
- Maxine Chesney
- 3:19-cv-04266
- U.S. District Court · Northern District of California
- 2
In Wood v. County of Contra Costa, Judge Chesney denied Wood’s default-judgment request against Bains because Bains filed a dismissal motion soon after the deadline and Wood showed no prejudice.
Andrea Wood’s request for default judgment against Erica Bains was denied; the order did not decide the underlying claims or Bains’s motion to dismiss.
What happened
In Wood v. County of Contra Costa, Andrea Wood asked the court to enter a default judgment against Erica Bains. Bains had been served with the lawsuit and was required to respond by September 9, 2019, but filed a motion to dismiss on September 17.
The court said the request was not appropriate regardless of whether Wood filed it before or after Bains’s motion. If Wood filed after the motion, Bains had already corrected the missed deadline. If Wood filed before it, the eight-day delay and Wood’s failure to identify any harm did not justify the extreme remedy of default judgment.
Judge Maxine M. Chesney denied Wood’s request for entry of default judgment against Bains. The order did not decide the underlying claims or Bains’s motion to dismiss.
The detailed version
- Wood v. County of Contra Costa · No. 3:19-cv-04266
- Maxine Chesney
- Oct. 4, 2019
Background
Andrea Wood filed a document titled “Default Judgment – By the Court,” seeking entry of default judgment against Erica Bains. Bains was served with the summons and complaint on August 17, 2019. Under the response deadline calculated by the court, Bains’s response was due by September 9, 2019.
On September 17, 2019, at 3:41 p.m., Bains electronically filed a motion to dismiss. Wood filed her request for default judgment manually on the same day, but the docket did not specify when she delivered it to the clerk.
Court’s Analysis
The court considered both possible filing sequences. If Wood filed her request after 3:41 p.m., Bains had already “cured [her] default” by filing the motion to dismiss, which weighed against default judgment.
The court reached the same result even if Wood filed her request before Bains filed the motion. It explained that default judgment is a drastic remedy appropriate only in extreme circumstances. Bains filed her motion only eight days after the response deadline, and Wood did not identify any prejudice caused by that limited delay. The opinion addressed only whether default judgment should be entered; it did not resolve the merits of the claims or the motion to dismiss.
Disposition
The court denied Wood’s request for entry of default judgment against Bains. Judge Maxine M. Chesney signed the order on October 4, 2019.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.