Fears and Tactical Air Defense v. Searock: Post-Answer Default Never Sounded So Exciting
February 22, 2013Charles Searock sued his former employer, Tactical Air Defense Services, Inc. and Gary Fears, for, among other things, breaching his employment contract. After the defendants filed an answer and participated in discovery, their attorney withdrew as counsel and they didn’t show up for trial. The trial court entered a post-answer default, but Fears and TADS moved for a new trial because, they claim, they never got notice of the trial date. This motion was denied. The Court of Appeals reversed the trial court because affidavit evidence proved that neither Fears nor TADS received notice of the trial setting. Moreover, the notice of trial provided to counsel for Fears and TADS before he withdrew cannot be imputed to them because the record lacked evidence indicating that the withdrawing counsel took efforts to inform his clients of the trial date before he withdrew.
