Paragon Six v. Girgis CA2/1

CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedNovember 3, 2025
DocketB327441
StatusUnpublished

This text of Paragon Six v. Girgis CA2/1 (Paragon Six v. Girgis CA2/1) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Paragon Six v. Girgis CA2/1, (Cal. Ct. App. 2025).

Opinion

Filed 10/31/25 Paragon Six v. Girgis CA2/1 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published, except as specified by rule 8.1115(b). This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

SECOND APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION ONE

PARAGON SIX, LLC, et al., B327441 B337407

Plaintiffs and Respondents, (Los Angeles County Super. Ct. No. 21LBCV00258) v.

RYAN GIRGIS,

Defendant and Appellant. B331507 PARAGON SIX, LLC, et al.,

Plaintiffs and Respondents, (Los Angeles County Super. Ct. No. 21LBCV00258) v.

NADER BASTA,

Defendant and Appellant.

APPEALS from the judgment and orders of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, Michael P. Vicencia, Judge. Vacated with directions as to the judgment. Dismissed as to the orders. Gusdorff Law, Janet Gusdorff; The Law Office of Greg May, Greg May; The Law Office of Stanley Stern and Stanley Stern, for Defendant and Appellant Ryan Girgis. Zarmi Law and David Zarmi for Defendant and Appellant Nader Basta. Walker Law, Justin O. Walker, Lorrie A. Walker, Jared A. Veliz; Williams Iagmin, Jon R. Williams; Wallin & Russell and Michael A. Wallin for Plaintiffs and Respondents Paragon Six LLC and Richard Larson.

__________________________________

Defendants Nader Basta and Ryan Girgis (defendants) appeal a judgment against them in the amount of $1,579,280.90 in favor of Paragon Six, LLC and Richard Larson (collectively, Paragon). Defendants argue the judgment is a default judgment awarding more than the complaint requests, thereby exceeding the court’s jurisdiction. Paragon disagrees and instead characterizes the judgment as one following a bench trial and thus not subject to the restrictions applicable to default judgments. We agree with defendants that the court lacked jurisdiction to hold a trial after it entered and declined to set aside the defaults against them. We treat the judgment as a default judgment following a default prove-up hearing. As such, it may not award relief greater than that requested in the appropriate pleadings. We further conclude that the judgment is void to the extent it purports to bind additional individuals not named in and/or served with the complaint. Accordingly, we vacate the judgment and instruct the court to enter a new one for $75,000, the amount of damages requested in the complaint, and the injunctive relief previously awarded, as against Girgis and Basta only.1 In issuing a new judgment, the

1 Defendants do not challenge the judgment’s award of injunctive relief.

2 court may also restrain the conduct of Girgis and Basta acting under aliases or fictious business names, and may choose to specifically identify monikers Girgis and Basta may use for this purpose. We dismiss as moot the defendants’ appeals from the postjudgment orders.

FACTUAL BACKGROUND A. Lawsuit and Proceedings Leading to Entries of Default Against Basta and Girgis Paragon sells a product for cleaning marijuana pipes called the “Kush Key.” In 2018, Basta worked as an independent contractor for Paragon. In July 2021, Paragon sued Basta, alleging that, both individually and through various fictitious business names and entities, Basta “converted the design of the Kush Key, which design was and is confidential information subject to the terms of the parties’ written contract . . . [¶] . . . in particular, . . . by selling knockoff products . . . derived directly from their unlawful conversion and misappropriation . . . on various online marketplaces including, but not limited to, Etsy.com” under various “shops/account names” including “420Keychains”; “AlienPokers”; “SmokerCharms”; “SmokingKeychains”; and “PokerPendants” and “by way of their website at https://smokingkeychains.com/.” (Italics omitted.) Paragon alleged causes of action for, inter alia, breach of contract, conversion, and misappropriation of trade secrets. In addition to Basta, Paragon named as defendants two “entit[ies] of unknown origin and form,” “Smoking Keychains,” and “Poker Pendants” (capitalization omitted), and does 1 through 50. On August 10, 2021, Etsy responded to a subpoena identifying Girgis as the “owner” of the Etsy “shop” associated with various names, including SmokerKeychains, SmokingKeychains, 420Keychains, and PokerKeychains. Thereafter, in September 2021, Paragon amended the operative

3 complaint substituting Girgis in place of one of the doe defendants. The operative complaint seeks “damages . . . in excess of $75,000,” punitive damages, costs of suit, and attorney fees, as well as “an injunction prohibiting defendants from engaging in the wrongful conduct alleged herein.” On January 5, 2022, “Blake Elliot” of “Smoking Keychains,” as a “plaintiff in pro per” filed a motion to quash a subpoena Paragon sent to Google regarding the domain name “Smoking Keychains.” (Capitalization omitted.) The motion was unsuccessful, and Google informed Paragon in response to the subpoena that Basta was the owner of the Google account associated with the domain name “Smoking Keychains.”

B. Entries of Default Against Basta and Girgis After Paragon’s failed attempts to serve Girgis and Basta, the court authorized Paragon to serve them by publication. On February 18, 2022, Paragon requested, and the court entered, default against Basta. On May 3, 2022, Paragon requested, and the court entered, defaults against “Girgis, Blake Elliott, and Blake Elliott[2] dba ‘Smoking Keychains.’ ”

C. Post-Default Filings Under the Names “Blake Elliott” and “Laura Washington” On July 11, 2022 (after the defaults were entered), “Laura Washington”—a name not identified as a defendant— purporting to be affiliated with Poker Pendants in an unspecified way and providing an address in Tucson, Arizona, filed a general denial. The record does not reflect any further court filings under this name, nor was “Laura Washington” added as a defendant.

2 The operative complaint does not name Blake Elliott as a defendant, however.

4 On August 5, 2022, “Blake Elliott” sought to vacate the entry of default against him and against “Smoking Keychains.” Paragon opposed the motion and the court denied it.

D. October 10, 2022 Proceeding and Resulting Judgment On October 10, 2022, the court held a proceeding, the nature of which is a topic of dispute on appeal. The proceeding was not transcribed. The minute order states the court “called [the case] for trial.” The only other substantive details the minute order provides are that: counsel appeared for Paragon; there were no appearances for any defendant; Richard Larson (of Paragon) testified; “the court order[ed] judgment in favor of [Paragon]” (capitalization omitted); the court ordered Paragon’s counsel to prepare and submit the judgment; and Paragon waived notice. On October 17, 2022, the court entered judgment on all claims in favor of Paragon and against, jointly and severally, “defendants” (capitalization omitted), defined to include, inter alia, Basta and Girgis.3 The judgment states all defendants “failed to appear.” The judgment does not vacate any entries of default. Although the judgment does not allocate an amount for punitive damages, it does state the court found “that defendants,

3 Specifically, the judgment defines “defendants” as: “Nader Basta, an individual (a.k.a ‘Nathan Basta’), Nader Basta d.b.a. ‘Smoking Keychains,’ Nader Basta d.b.a ‘Poker Pendants,’ Smoking Keychains, Blake Elliott, Blake Elliott d.b.a. ‘Smoking Keychains,’ Poker Pendants, Laura Washington, Laura Washington d.b.a. ‘Poker Pendants,’ Ryan Girgis, an individual, Ryan Girgis d.b.a. ‘Smoking Keychains,’ and Ryan Girgis d.b.a.

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