Overdrive Espresso, L.L.C. v. Finein

Citations

• 2025 Ohio 5226

Syllabus

Cognovit note; motion for relief from judgment; meritorious defenses to cognovit notes; consumer transaction. Pursuant to an employment agreement, appellant agreed to reimburse appellee for training costs if she quit or breached the contract within a period of two years of signing the employment agreement. She signed a cognovit note simultaneously with signing the employment agreement requiring that $10,000 be paid if she quit before the two year period had expired. Appellant voluntarily terminated her employment before the two years expired. Appellee filed a complaint and an answer confessing judgment on the cognovit note with the court of common pleas. A judgment entry on the cognovit note was filed the same day in favor of appellee. Almost two and a half months later, appellant filed a motion for relief from judgment on the cognovit note that was subsequently denied by the trial court in a single sentence judgment entry. Appellant appealed alleging that the trial court's judgment entry denying the motion for relief from judgment was insufficient because it did not adequately explain or give reasons for its denial. Appellant also claimed that she presented numerous meritorious defenses to the cognovit note. A trial court is not required to provide findings of fact and conclusions of law when ruling on a motion for relief from judgment. Appellant argued that the trial court was precluded from rendering a judgment on the cognovit note since the note arose out of a consumer transaction. Since the transaction from which the note arose was not a consumer transaction, the trial court had jurisdiction to render a judgment on it. Appellant's remaining challenges concerning whether the $10,000 on the note adequately represented training costs, and whether New York law or federal law precluded the note's enforcement, did not fall within the range of meritorious defenses to a cognovit note.