Brahms

INTRODUCTION

Joseph Wilk appeals from a default judgment in favor of Eric Brahms and from an order denying his motion to vacate that judgment and the default itself. Brahms sued Wilk for defaming him on some websites. Wilk failed to respond, and Brahms took his default. He later obtained a default judgment against Wilk for nearly $4 million. Wilk moved to vacate the judgment under the court’s equitable powers. The court denied the motion, holding that Wilk had not demonstrated a satisfactory excuse for failing to respond to the complaint in a timely matter. We affirm both the default judgment – with one exception – and the order denying the motion to vacate the judgment and the default. We are striking the punitive damages award and remanding the punitive damages issue to the trial court for a new prove-up hearing. A defaulting defendant has only limited grounds for appealing the judgment itself. He cannot, for example, now contend that the allegations of the complaint are not true. He may offer objections to the evidence presented at the prove-up, but there he runs into the formidable obstacle of the prima facie evidence standard of review on appeal. The only evidentiary problem…