Castillo v. El San Juan City Island on 5th Ave LLC

Background

The court held an April 13, 2022 hearing on the motion by counsel for Manuel Vidal and Josefina Vidal to withdraw. Counsel stated that the defendants had been unwilling to participate in discovery. The individual defendants had been ordered to attend the hearing, but they did not initially appear; the court contacted Manuel Vidal by telephone, and he then participated by telephone.

The court granted counsel’s motion to withdraw and scheduled a May 16, 2022 conference. It ordered the individual defendants to appear in person or through newly retained counsel. Neither the individual defendants nor newly retained counsel appeared. The court then adjourned the conference to June 1, 2022, ordered all defendants—including “El San Juan” City Island on 5th Ave LLC—to attend, and warned that failure to appear would lead to default judgment. None of the defendants appeared on June 1.

Court’s Reasoning

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 16 permits a court to issue appropriate orders when a party fails to attend a scheduled or other pretrial conference or fails to obey a scheduling or pretrial order. The court considered the defendants’ failure to attend three conferences, their repeated reminders about their obligations, and the warnings that failure to comply could result in default judgment. It concluded that the defendants had willfully ignored the court’s orders and abandoned their responsibilities in the case. The court also concluded that entering a certificate of default was the only sanction likely to compel compliance.

Disposition

Judge Gregory H. Woods directed the Clerk of Court to enter a certificate of default against all defendants and to mail the order to Manuel Vidal and Josefina Vidal by certified and first-class mail. The court expected any motion for default judgment to be filed no later than July 5, 2022. This order entered a certificate of default; it did not itself enter default judgment.