Yes, and that is when the Defendant failed to appear. That is not the case here. They denied the allegations with affirmative defenses. The judge should have filed his order at trial and then informed the Plaintiffs that this would be a evidentiary hearing. The court did not do that. The court assumed they would not appear. That is why it's appealable.
The case law you cite to says you can't challenge on the merits. It does not say that it's not appealable which is what you are saying.
In other words, they can't argue on appeal that they didn't breach the case. They can argue that were denied the right to defend themselves based on the court's ruling.
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