[PUBLISH] In the United States Court of Appeals For the Eleventh Circuit

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No. 20-12660 ____________________ MICHAEL GULISANO, Interested Party-Appellant, CATHY COHEN, Plaintiff, versus BURLINGTON, INC.,

Defendant-Appellee. USCA11 Case: 20-12660 Date Filed: 05/12/2022 Page: 2 of 18

2 Opinion of the Court 20-12660

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Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida D.C. Docket No. 9:18-cv-81420-BB ____________________ Before JORDAN, JILL PRYOR, and MARCUS, Circuit Judges. JILL PRYOR, Circuit Judge: When attorney Michael Gulisano represented a client in a negligence action in the Southern District of Florida, he obtained a default judgment against a non-existent entity, “Burlington, Inc.” He added an unrelated entity, Burlington Coat Factory Direct Cor- poration, as a judgment debtor on the resulting writ of execution. He used the writ of execution to levy funds from another entity, Burlington Stores, Inc. After Burlington Stores, Inc. and Burlington Coat Factory Warehouse Corporation protested and sought to quash the writ, Gulisano asked the district court in the Southern District of Florida to amend its default judgment order and name Burlington Stores, Inc. and Burlington Coat Factory Warehouse Corporation as judgment debtors. The district court denied the motion and, finding it to be legally and factually frivolous, imposed sanctions under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 11. It also denied Gulisano’s motion for reconsideration of the sanctions order. After careful review and with the benefit of oral argument, we affirm. USCA11 Case: 20-12660 Date Filed: 05/12/2022 Page: 3 of 18

20-12660 Opinion of the Court 3

I. FACTS1 While Cathy Cohen was shopping at a Burlington Coat Fac- tory store in Royal Palm Beach, Florida, she looked at a set of tables on display. When Cohen attempted to inspect the tables, they fell on her knee. Cohen jumped back to avoid the falling tables, injur- ing her neck and back. Cohen hired Gulisano as her attorney. He filed a civil action on her behalf in federal court in the Southern District of Florida. The complaint Gulisano drafted alleged that defendant “Burling- ton, Inc.”2 had been negligent and was liable for damages to Cohen. Gulisano served a summons and a copy of the complaint on CT Corporation System, ostensibly the registered agent of “Burling- ton, Inc.” After “Burlington, Inc.” failed to file an answer or other- wise respond to the lawsuit, the district court clerk entered a de- fault. Following a hearing on damages, the district court entered a default judgment, awarding Cohen $677,774.75. The district court’s final judgment named “Burlington, Inc.” as the sole defend- ant. To collect on the default judgment, Gulisano requested that the court issue a writ of execution naming “Burlington, Inc. a/k/a

1Because we write for the parties, we recount only the facts necessary to ex- plain our decision. 2 Gulisano referred to the defendant as both “Burlington Inc.” and “Burling- ton, Inc.” For the sake of consistency, this opinion will use “Burlington, Inc.” USCA11 Case: 20-12660 Date Filed: 05/12/2022 Page: 4 of 18

4 Opinion of the Court 20-12660 Burlington Coat Factory Direct Corporation” as the judgment debtor. The court issued the writ. Seeking to execute the writ, Gulisano used employer identi- fication numbers (“