Ji v. Aily Foot Relax Station Inc

Background

Defense counsel filed a letter seeking three forms of relief: disqualification of plaintiff’s counsel, disqualification of himself from representing the defendants, and postponement of the final pretrial conference, jury selection, and trial. The final pretrial conference was scheduled for January 18, 2023, and jury selection and trial were scheduled to begin on January 23, 2023.

Disqualification of Plaintiff’s Counsel

The court noted that defense counsel largely repeated arguments made in earlier motions, which the court had denied. It denied defendants’ motion to disqualify plaintiff’s counsel for the reasons stated in the court’s prior orders.

Withdrawal of Defense Counsel

The court treated defense counsel’s request to disqualify himself as a motion to withdraw. Xiang Man Zhang’s affidavit stated that she distrusted Mr. Ning Ye as her counsel and believed he had to be disqualified. Based on that affidavit, the court found that the professional relationship appeared to have broken down and that the clients had agreed to end the representation. The court granted defense counsel’s motion to withdraw.

Aily Foot Relax Station, Inc., and Linda Foot Relax Station, Inc. are corporations. The court stated that corporations cannot appear in federal court without counsel and that a non-lawyer cannot represent a company. The court therefore required those defendants to engage an attorney who would appear at the January 18 final pretrial conference. If new counsel did not appear, the court said it would permit plaintiff to seek default judgments against the corporations.

The court strongly encouraged, but did not require, Xiang Man Zhang and Ke Xue Zheng to retain a new attorney. It stated that they otherwise had to represent themselves going forward, including by attending the pretrial conference, jury selection, and trial in person.

Request to Postpone Proceedings

The court denied defense counsel’s motion to adjourn the final pretrial conference, jury selection, and trial. It explained that the dates had been set during a July 11, 2022 conference attended by counsel for both sides, and that the court had issued a written order setting the dates the next day. The court criticized defense counsel for scheduling a conflicting proceeding in another court four months later and for not raising the conflict in four motions filed since November 2022. The court also stated that any scheduling conflict was no longer relevant because it had granted counsel’s withdrawal.

The court kept the final pretrial conference on January 18, 2023, at 10:00 a.m., and jury selection and trial on January 23, 2023, at 9:30 a.m. It warned that the corporate defendants’ failure to appear through an attorney, or the individual defendants’ failure to appear either on their own or through an attorney, could result in default judgment. The court directed Mr. Ye to serve the order on his clients and file a letter certifying that he had done so.