Brown v. Lithia Motors Inc

• Court: District Court, W.D. Washington
• Decided: January 8, 2025
• Docket: 2:24-cv-01861
• Status: Unknown

Opinion

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5 6 7 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 8 WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON AT SEATTLE 9 10 MICHAEL BROWN, CASE NO. 2:24-cv-01861-LK 11 Plaintiff, ORDER DENYING MOTION FOR 12 v. DEFAULT JUDGMENT 13 LITHIA MOTORS, INC. et al., 14 Defendants. 15

16 This matter comes before the Court on Plaintiff Michael Brown’s Motion for Default 17 Judgment. Dkt. No. 18. Mr. Brown seeks default judgment against Defendants Lithia Motors, Inc., 18 Driveway Financial Corporation, and Lithia of Bend #2, LLC. Id. at 1. Mr. Brown does not seek 19 default judgment against Defendant Driveway Motors, LLC “as their counsel has submitted an 20 Answer on their behalf.” Id.1 21

22 1 In that Answer, Driveway Motors, LLC asserts that “[n]one of the other named defendants in this action have been properly served.” Dkt. No. 16 at 1. While the Court expresses no opinion on the truth of that statement at this stage in the proceedings, it reminds Mr. Brown that he is not entitled to default or default judgment against any party that has 23 not been properly served pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 4. See Herbalife Int’l of Am., Inc. v. Healthy1 Inc., 830 F. App'x 801, 803 (9th Cir. 2020) (“A default judgment is void if the defendant has not been made a party 24 by service of process.” (quotation marks and citation omitted)). 1 Obtaining a default judgment is a two-step process. First, the moving party must obtain an 2 entry of default. Fed. R. Civ. P. 55(a). And second, the moving party must request a default 3 judgment from the clerk or apply for one from the court. Fed. R. Civ. P. 55(b). The Local Civil 4 Rules expressly provide that “[n]o motion for judgment by default should be filed against any party

5 unless the court has previously granted a motion for default against that party pursuant to LCR 6 55(a) or unless default otherwise has been entered.” LCR 55(b)(1). 7 Here, Mr. Brown has moved for an order of default judgment prior to the Court granting a 8 motion for an entry of default, in violation of the Local Civil Rules. Accordingly, Mr. Brown’s 9 motion for default judgment is DENIED without prejudice to renew in compliance with the Federal 10 Rules of Civil Procedure, the Local Civil Rules, and this Court’s Standing Order for All Civil 11 Cases. See Dkt. No. 5-1 at 6 (requiring movants seeking a default judgment to, among other things, 12 address the factors set forth in Eitel v. McCool, 782 F.2d 1470, 1471–72 (9th Cir. 1986)). 13 Dated this 8th day of January, 2025. 14 A

15 Lauren King United States District Judge 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24