George Kamper Inc v. Rusty Stein & Company, 1:22-cv-20186

Plaintiff filed a copyright-infringement complaint on Jan. 13, 2022, alleging Defendants used Plaintiff’s copyrighted photograph on their real-estate website.
Defendants were served; their responses were due Feb. 9, 2022, but they did not timely respond.
Plaintiff moved for a clerk’s entry of default; the Clerk entered default on Feb. 16, 2022.
Defendants filed an unopposed motion to vacate the clerk’s default on Mar. 1, 2022; Plaintiff did not oppose the motion.
Defendants’ counsel asserted they were negotiating with Plaintiff and making good-faith efforts to remove the image; two Defendants also contend service was improper because the purported co-resident served does not live with the individual defendant.
The magistrate judge found prompt corrective action, lack of willfulness, absence of prejudice, and a factual dispute over service, and recommended vacating the clerk’s default.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether clerk’s entry of default should be set aside	Clerk’s default was proper after failure to answer	Default should be vacated: not willful, acted promptly, no prejudice, meritorious defenses	Recommended to set aside default for good cause (not culpable; prompt action; Plaintiff not prejudiced)
Whether service of process was sufficient	Return of service shows service on a co-resident, consistent with proper service	Service improper: affidavit says the person served does not reside with the defendant	Court found a genuine factual dispute on service and relied on that as additional reason to vacate the default; did not resolve service definitively
Whether defendants presented meritorious defenses	N/A (Plaintiff sought default judgment)	Defendants assert meritorious defenses to the infringement claim	Court did not decide on merits; held other factors suffice to set aside default

Robinson v. United States, 734 F.2d 735 (11th Cir. 1984) (district courts have considerable discretion to set aside defaults)
Fla. Physician's Ins. Co. v. Ehlers, 8 F.3d 780 (11th Cir. 1993) (defaults disfavored; cases decided on merits)
Jones v. Harrell, 858 F.2d 667 (11th Cir. 1988) (minimal showing required to support vacatur of default)
EEOC v. Mike Smith Pontiac GMC, Inc., 896 F.2d 524 (11th Cir. 1990) (good-cause standard for vacating defaults is less stringent than for setting aside default judgments)
Compania Interamericana Export-Import, S.A. v. Compania Dominicana de Aviacion, 88 F.3d 948 (11th Cir. 1996) (factors to consider in assessing good cause to set aside default)
Thomas v. Arn, 474 U.S. 140 (1985) (magistrate report–and-recommendation objections require de novo review by district judge)
Henley v. Johnson, 885 F.2d 790 (11th Cir. 1989) (procedural principles for review of magistrate judge findings)