Opening a Pennsylvania default judgment: ten days changes everything

Pennsylvania does not have one motion for getting out of a default judgment. It has two, they are decided on completely different grounds, and Rule 206.1(b) requires you to raise both in the same petition or lose the one you left out.

And there is a ten-day window that changes the standard from something you must persuade a judge to do into something the rule says the court shall do.

Strike or open — they are not the same thing

Pa.R.C.P. 206.1(a) defines what a "petition" is in this chapter:

As used in this chapter, ''petition'' means (1) an application to strike and/or open a default judgment or a judgment of non pros, and (2) any other application which is designated by local rule, numbered Local Rule 206.1(a), to be governed by Rule 206.1 et seq.

The distinction underneath that "and/or" is the whole of Pennsylvania default practice.

Striking attacks the record. The judgment should never have been entered because something on the face of the docket is defective — no ten-day notice, a praecipe missing its certification, service that does not appear. Pa.R.C.P. 206.4(a)(2) treats this as so clear it skips a step:

A judgment shall be stricken without the issuance of a rule to show cause when there is a defect on the face of the record that constitutes a ground for striking a default judgment.

Opening concedes the judgment was properly entered and asks the court to let you defend anyway. That requires you to show you have a defense worth hearing.

Both go in one petition. Rule 206.1(b):

A petition shall specify the relief sought and state the material facts which constitute the grounds therefor. All grounds for relief, whether to strike or open a default judgment, shall be asserted in a single petition.

Rule 237.3(a) says the same thing again, and adds the attachment requirement:

A petition for relief from a judgment of non pros or by default entered pursuant to Rule 237.1 shall have attached thereto a copy of the complaint, preliminary objections, and/or answer which the petitioner seeks leave to file. All grounds for relief shall be raised in a single petition.

So the pleading you want to file has to travel with the petition. A petition that promises to answer later is not what the rule asks for.

The ten days

This is the provision worth building your week around. Pa.R.C.P. 237.3(b):

(1) If the petition is filed within ten days after the entry of a judgment of non pros on the docket, the court shall open the judgment if the proposed complaint states a meritorious cause of action.

(2) If the petition is filed within ten days after the entry of a default judgment on the docket, the court shall open the judgment if one or more of the proposed preliminary objections has merit or the proposed answer states a meritorious defense.

Read what that does. Inside ten days there is no excuse requirement at all. The rule does not ask why you defaulted. It asks one question — is there merit in the pleading you have attached — and if the answer is yes, the court shall open.

Outside ten days you are back to persuading the court on the ordinary equitable grounds, including why the default happened and whether you moved promptly. That is a materially harder position, and nothing about it is automatic.

Ten days runs from the entry of the judgment on the docket, not from when you found out about it. Check the docket date before anything else.

How the judgment got entered in the first place

Worth knowing, because it is where most striking grounds come from. Pa.R.C.P. 1037(b):

The prothonotary, on praecipe of the plaintiff, shall enter judgment against the defendant for failure to file within the required time a pleading to a complaint which contains a notice to defend or, except as provided by subdivision (d), for any relief admitted to be due by the defendant's pleadings.

But the prothonotary may not do that without the ten-day warning first. Rule 237.1(a)(2):

No judgment of non pros for failure to file a complaint or by default for failure to plead shall be entered by the prothonotary unless the praecipe for entry includes a certification that a written notice of intention to file the praecipe was mailed or delivered … (ii) in the case of a judgment by default, after the failure to plead to a complaint and at least ten days prior to the date of the filing of the praecipe to the party against whom judgment is to be entered and to the party's attorney of record, if any.

Two more sentences in that rule matter a great deal to anyone attacking a judgment:

(3) A copy of the notice shall be attached to the praecipe.

(4) The notice and certification required by this rule may not be waived.

A judgment entered without that notice, or without the certification attached, has a defect on the face of the record — which is the Rule 206.4(a)(2) route, and it does not depend on the merits of your defense at all. This site's guide on the ten-day default notice covers that requirement from the other direction.

What happens after you file

Unless the judgment is stricken outright, the petition proceeds on a rule to show cause. Rule 206.4(a)(1) makes issuance discretionary unless the county has adopted issuance as of course by local rule — so check the local rules before assuming either way.

Then Rule 206.7 governs, and it contains a trap for whoever does nothing:

(a) If an answer is not filed, all averments of fact in the petition may be deemed admitted for the purposes of this subdivision and the court shall enter an appropriate order.

(b) If an answer is filed raising no disputed issues of material fact, the court on request of the petitioner shall decide the petition on the petition and answer.

(c) If an answer is filed raising disputed issues of material fact, the petitioner may take depositions on those issues, or such other discovery as the court allows, within the time set forth in the order of the court. If the petitioner does not do so, the petition shall be decided on petition and answer and all averments of fact responsive to the petition and properly pleaded in the answer shall be deemed admitted for the purpose of this subdivision.

That last sentence is the one that loses petitions. If the plaintiff's answer disputes your facts and you take no depositions inside the court's time limit, the plaintiff's version is deemed admitted and your petition is decided on that record.

How Pennsylvania compares

A short checklist

1. Get the docket entry date for the judgment. Everything turns on it, and it is not the date you were told.
2. If you are inside ten days, file now. Rule 237.3(b)(2) does not ask why you defaulted.
3. Attach the pleading you want to file — preliminary objections, an answer, or both. The petition is incomplete without it.
4. Put every ground in the one petition, strike and open together. Rules 206.1(b) and 237.3(a) both say so, and there is no second petition.
5. Check the record for a striking ground first — no Rule 237.1 notice, no certification, no copy of the notice attached to the praecipe. That route skips the rule to show cause entirely.
6. Read the local rules on whether a rule to show cause issues as of course or in the court's discretion.
7. If the answer disputes your facts, take the depositions inside the court's deadline. Skipping them concedes the plaintiff's account under Rule 206.7(c).

Where these rules live

• Pa.R.C.P. 206.1 — Petition. Definition. Content. Form.
• Pa.R.C.P. 206.4 — Rule to Show Cause. Alternative Procedures. Exception.
• Pa.R.C.P. 206.7 — Procedure After Issuance of Rule to Show Cause
• Pa.R.C.P. 237.1 — Notice of Praecipe for Entry of Judgment
• Pa.R.C.P. 237.3 — Relief from Judgment of Non Pros or by Default
• Pa.R.C.P. 1037 — Judgment Upon Default or Admission

This page explains what the rules say. It isn't legal advice, and what makes a defense "meritorious" under Rule 237.3(b) is developed in case law this site doesn't cover.