Tate v. Riverboat Services, Inc.
United States District Court for the Northern District of Indiana
305 F. Supp. 916 (N.D. Ind. 2004)
Relevant factsFree
Riverboat (defendant) failed to answer Tate's (plaintiff) unpaid-overtime complaint, resulting in a default judgment exceeding $1 million, and moved to vacate six weeks later, explaining its negligent failure stemmed from confusion over multiple identical lawsuits pending in different courts and identifying that at least two plaintiffs' claims were likely barred by res judicata from prior voluntary dismissals.
IssueFree
Whether a district court may vacate a default judgment if the defendant can show (1) good cause for the default, (2) that it acted quickly to correct the default, and (3) that it had a meritorious defense.