Lemus

I. INTRODUCTION

Plaintiff and appellant Juan Ramos Lemus retained defendant and respondent

Eyad Yaser Abdeljawad to assist in seeking the recovery of surplus funds following the

foreclosure sale of plaintiff’s home. Plaintiff subsequently filed a civil action against

defendant claiming that defendant had wrongfully withheld a portion of the recovered

surplus funds. On January 28, 2020, plaintiff requested an entry of default against

defendant.

Upon receipt of the request for entry of default, defendant attempted to contact

plaintiff’s counsel by telephone, regular mail, and electronic mail. In each attempted

communication, defendant represented that he had never been served with the complaint,

had only learned of the litigation upon receipt of the request for entry of default, and

requested a copy of the complaint for review. Instead of responding to any of these

inquiries, plaintiff and his counsel prepared and filed a default prove-up package and

request for entry of a default judgment. As a result, a default judgment was entered on

June 1, 2020.

On July 13, 2020, defendant moved to set aside the default judgment and

underlying default pursuant to Code of Civil…