On June 7, 2023, Justice Cohen of the New York County Commercial Division issued a decision in Downtown Special Situations Holdings, LLC v. Mills Dental-Downtown Brooklyn, PLLC, 2023 NY Slip Op. 31930(U), defaulting a limited liability company for failure to appear through counsel, explaining:
Pursuant to CPLR 32l(a), a limited liability company is required to be represented by counsel to prosecute or defend a litigation. As such, a limited liability company is subject to a default judgment when the Court relieves the limited liability company’s counsel, and the limited liability company then fails to appear by new counsel after a stay of the action is lifted.
As noted, the Court stayed this matter for forty-five days to afford all the Defendants sufficient time to retain new counsel. Moreover, even after the stay expired on January 30, 2023, the LLC Defendants has had months to appear through counsel and stand ready to defend this case. To date, the LLC Defendants have not done so. Plaintiff also submitted an affidavit of service demonstrating that the LLC Defendants and the Individual Defendants were served with the Notice for Default Judgment and supporting papers.
Accordingly, it is ORDERED that Plaintiffs motion for a default judgment against Defendants Mills Dental-Downtown Brooklyn, PLLC, and Probity Dental, PLLC is GRANTED . . . .
(Internal citations omitted).