Franchise Holding Ii, Llc v. Huntington Restaurants Group, Inc.

375 F.3d 922 FRANCHISE HOLDING II, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. HUNTINGTON RESTAURANTS GROUP, INC., a Texas corporation; Golden Management, Inc., a Florida corporation; Richard P. Beattie, an individual; Michelle Beattie, an individual, Defendants-Appellants. No. 03-15434. United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit. Argued and Submitted February 12, 2004. Filed July 20, 2004. COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED Robert J. Stumpf, Jr., Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP, San Francisco, CA, for the appellants. Kristin Linsley Myles, Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP, San Francisco, CA, for the appellee. Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Arizona; Frederick J. Martone, District Judge, Presiding. D.C. No. CV-02-00066-FJM. Before: SCHROEDER, Chief Judge, TALLMAN, and CALLAHAN, Circuit Judges. CALLAHAN, Circuit Judge: 1 Huntington Restaurants Group, Inc., Richard P. Beattie and Michelle Beattie (collectively, "HRG") appeal the district court's denial of their motion to set aside an entry of default and a default judgment. While the law favors deciding disputes on the merits, the district court's decision here to deny HRG's…