Court Adopts Magistrate Recommendation in Lien Foreclosure Suit

The court has reviewed the motions at issue de novo. There is no basis for Fraughton's objection to this court's referral of the matter to a magistrate judge or to the magistrate judge's authority to act on the pending motions. Furthermore, this court has subject matter jurisdiction over the case, and the United States has stated a plausible claim against Fraughton for failure to meet his federal tax obligations. Fraughton's motion for a more definite statement is untimely and without merit because the Complaint adequately pleads the cause of action against Fraughton. Finally, the United States demonstrated that it is entitled to default judgment against the Office of Overseer.

The court concludes that Magistrate Judge Warner's Report and Recommendation correctly analyzed the motions at issue. To the extent that either of Fraughton's recently filed "Counterclaims" could be construed to be objections to the Report and Recommendation, they are without merit. Accordingly, the court adopts and affirms the Magistrate's Report and Recommendation as discussed above as the order of this court. The court, therefore, orders that Fraughton's motions to dismiss and motion for more definite statement are denied and the United States' motion for default judgment against the Office of the Overseer is granted.

To the extent that Fraughton's recently filed "Counterclaims" are intended to be actual Counterclaims against the United States, the Counterclaims are untimely. The deadline to file amended pleadings in this case was October 31, 2014. Fraughton filed the recent Counterclaims with no assertion of good cause for the delay. Moreover, Fraughton was required to obtain leave of court before filing the Counterclaim, which he did not seek. Accordingly, the court dismisses the Counterclaims as untimely.

DATED this 3rd day of March, 2015.