NY Custom Interior Millwork Corp. v. Pennsylvania Lumbermens Mutual Insurance…
NY Custom Interior Millwork Corp. v. Pennsylvania Lumbermens Mutual Insurance Company
- Ronnie Abrams
- 1:19-cv-10086
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 1
In NY Custom Interior Millwork v. Pennsylvania Lumbermens, Judge Abrams ordered the corporation to obtain counsel and file an appearance by January 7, 2020.
NY Custom Interior Millwork Corp., which was required to obtain counsel and file a notice of appearance by January 7, 2020.
What happened
NY Custom Interior Millwork Corp. sued Pennsylvania Lumbermens Mutual Insurance Company in federal court. The opinion addresses whether the corporate plaintiff had complied with the court’s requirement to have a lawyer appear for it.
The court had previously postponed the initial status conference to January 10, 2020, and ordered the plaintiff’s lawyer to file a notice of appearance by December 20, 2019. The plaintiff had not filed that notice by January 3, 2020.
Judge Ronnie Abrams ordered NY Custom Interior Millwork Corp. to file a notice of appearance by January 7, 2020. The court stated that a corporation cannot represent itself without a lawyer; the opinion did not decide the underlying dispute with the insurance company.
The detailed version
- NY Custom Interior Millwork Corp. v. Pennsylvania Lumbermens Mutual Insurance… · No. 1:19-cv-10086
- Ronnie Abrams
- Jan. 3, 2020
Background
The plaintiff is NY Custom Interior Millwork Corp., and the defendant is Pennsylvania Lumbermens Mutual Insurance Company. On November 22, 2019, the court granted the defendant’s request to move the initial status conference to January 10, 2020. The court also ordered counsel for the plaintiff to file a notice of appearance by December 20, 2019.
Issue
The court addressed the plaintiff’s failure to file a notice of appearance. It stated that, because the plaintiff is a corporation, it may not proceed without a lawyer and must obtain counsel to continue in the action. The court cited Rowland v. California Men's Colony and Jones v. Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority for that rule.
Ruling
Judge Ronnie Abrams ordered the plaintiff to file a notice of appearance no later than January 7, 2020. The order did not resolve the parties’ underlying dispute or state that the action was dismissed.
Read the full 1-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.