SRI Energy LLC v. Clean Energy Nexus LLC
- Jesse Furman
- 1:22-cv-10431
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 3
In SRI Energy v. Clean Energy Nexus, Judge Furman ordered a hearing to proceed and warned default judgment could follow if CEN lacked counsel.
Clean Energy Nexus LLC had to appear through counsel at the scheduled hearing or risk the court granting SRI Energy LLC’s motion for entry of default judgment. SRI Energy LLC had to email the order to Joaquin Altenberg and file proof of service.
What happened
In SRI Energy LLC v. Clean Energy Nexus LLC, the court addressed an email from Clean Energy Nexus LLC’s chief executive officer about the upcoming hearing on SRI Energy LLC’s request for default judgment. The email said the company was trying to find a lawyer and opposed default judgment, asserting that the lawsuit lacked merit and that SRI had breached the parties’ contract.
The court explained that parties may not send substantive case-related communications by email. It also explained that a corporation may appear in federal court only through a lawyer. The court warned that repeated failure by a corporation to appear through counsel can lead to default judgment.
Judge Jesse M. Furman ordered the June 27, 2023 telephone hearing to take place as scheduled. He stated that the court might grant SRI’s motion for default judgment if Clean Energy Nexus did not appear through a lawyer admitted to practice in the Southern District of New York, and ordered SRI to email the order to the company’s CEO and file proof of service.
The detailed version
- SRI Energy LLC v. Clean Energy Nexus LLC · No. 1:22-cv-10431
- Jesse Furman
- June 23, 2023
Background
The court received an email from Joaquin Altenberg, identified as Clean Energy Nexus LLC’s chief executive officer. Altenberg stated that he was trying to secure a lawyer before the scheduled hearing, opposed entry of default judgment, and asserted that SRI Energy LLC’s lawsuit lacked merit. He alleged that SRI had breached the contract through fraudulent inducement and by failing to satisfy minimum performance criteria. The opinion does not resolve those allegations.
Court’s reasoning
The court stated that it may not communicate with parties without lawyers by email and that its rules prohibit any party from submitting substantive case-related communications by email. More importantly, the court reiterated that a corporate entity may appear in federal court only through counsel. The court cited authority stating that a default judgment may be entered when a corporate entity repeatedly fails to appear through counsel.
Order
The court kept the June 27, 2023, 10:00 a.m. hearing on SRI’s motion for entry of default judgment. The hearing was to occur remotely by telephone. The court warned that it might grant SRI’s motion if Clean Energy Nexus did not appear through counsel admitted to practice in the Southern District of New York. The court also ordered SRI to email a copy of the order to Altenberg by 5 p.m. on June 23 and file proof of service by June 26.
This order did not grant or deny the default-judgment motion and did not decide the parties’ contract dispute.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.