It’s not enough for a company on the wrong end of a lawsuit to forward the matter to a compliance officer without following up, according to the Fourth District Court of Appeal, which revived a $43,000 judgment Wednesday against New York-based mortgage lender Franklin First Financial Ltd. for doing just that.

Broward Circuit Judge Sandra Perlman had vacated the judgment, based on testimony from the company’s chief financial officer. But that was a gross abuse of discretion, according to the appellate panel, because the defendant couldn’t prove what happened to the complaint, or whether it even made it to the intended person.