Roland Brown v. HDR Logistics, LLC
Case Details
- Judge(s)
- Judge D. Michael Swiney
- Status — whether other courts must follow this ruling
- Published
- Procedural Posture — the stage the case had reached
- Appeal of trial court's denial of motion to set aside default judgment; affirmed on appeal
Related Laws
No specific laws identified for this ruling.
Outcome
Appellate court affirmed the trial court's denial of defendant HDR Logistics' motion to set aside default judgment, holding that the defendant failed to demonstrate excusable neglect and that the trial court properly conducted an evidentiary hearing on unliquidated damages.
Excerpt
This appeal concerns a motion to set aside a default judgment. Roland Brown ("Plaintiff") sued HDR Logistics, LLC ("Defendant") in the Circuit Court for Jefferson County ("the Trial Court") alleging that he sustained injuries from an incident in which Defendant's employee backed his tractor-trailer into Plaintiff's parked tractor-trailer. Plaintiff served a copy of the complaint and summons on Lisa Blackwell ("Blackwell"), Defendant's designated agent in Tennessee for service of process. Defendant failed to respond, and Plaintiff obtained a default judgment. Defendant later filed a motion to set aside. Defendant submitted the affidavits of two individuals who said that the company did not receive notice of the lawsuit. Notably, the record contains no affidavit from Blackwell explaining what happened. The Trial Court denied Defendant's motion. Defendant appeals, arguing that its failure to respond was due to excusable neglect in that it lacked actual notice of the lawsuit even though its agent was served, and that the Trial Court failed to conduct a writ of inquiry on unliquidated damages as required. We hold, inter alia, that the Trial Court did not abuse its discretion in denying Defendant's motion to set aside default judgment. We hold further that Defendant failed to meet its burden showing the Trial Court did not conduct an appropriate evidentiary hearing on unliquidated damages. We affirm.
What This Ruling Means
This summary was generated to explain the ruling in plain English and is not legal advice.
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