Heights in Paris LLC v. Almanzar

Background

Heights in Paris filed the action without a lawyer. The court had previously dismissed the complaint without prejudice to Heights in Paris retaining counsel. After an amended complaint identified the plaintiff as “Glotsip, LLC d/b/a Heights in Paris,” the court noted that counsel still had not been retained, ordered the action closed, and entered judgment.

Glotsip later filed an affidavit seeking a default judgment because the defendants had not answered. Eric T. Baker filed a separate motion to reopen. Baker stated that he had a pending related case involving Glotsip and Heights in Paris, but the court treated him as an individual who was not a party to this action.

Rulings

The court denied the motion for default judgment. A default judgment is a judgment sought because a defendant failed to respond, but the court found that the defendants were not in default: no summons had issued, so they had not been notified of this action and were not required to respond.

The court also denied the motion to reopen. Baker was not a party, and the court explained that a nonlawyer may represent only the nonlawyer’s own interests, not another person or entity. The court therefore did not allow Baker to appear for Heights in Paris.

Disposition

The court denied both the motion for a default judgment and the motion to reopen. The action is closed. The Clerk of Court will accept only documents directed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and the court warned that further frivolous or meritless filings could lead to an order requiring the plaintiff to explain why it should not be barred from filing more documents in this action. The court also certified that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without paying the filing fee.