Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/boundvolumes/524bv.pdf
Page Number: 90.0

524US1

Unit: $U73

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Cite as: 524 U. S. 38 (1998)

45

Opinion of the Court

scribed in these rules or by an independent action.”
Fed. Rule Civ. Proc. 60(b).

The new Rule thus made clear that nearly all of the old
forms of obtaining relief from a judgment, i. e., coram nobis,
coram vobis, audita querela, bills of review, and bills in the
nature of review, had been abolished. The revision made
equally clear, however, that one of the old forms, i. e., the
“independent action,” 2 still survived. The Advisory Com-
mittee notes conﬁrmed this, indicating that “[i]f the right to
make a motion is lost by the expiration of the time limits
ﬁxed in these rules, the only other procedural remedy is by
a new or independent action to set aside a judgment upon
those principles which have heretofore been applied in such
an action.” Advisory Committee’s Notes, supra, at 787.

The “independent action” sounded in equity. While its
precise contours are somewhat unclear, it appears to have
been more broadly available than the more narrow writs that
the 1946 amendment abolished. One case that exempliﬁes
the category is Paciﬁc R. Co. of Mo. v. Missouri Paciﬁc R.
Co., 111 U. S. 505 (1884).3

In Paciﬁc the underlying suit had resulted in a court de-
cree foreclosing a mortgage on railroad property and order-
ing its sale. This Court enforced the decree and shortly
thereafter the railroad company whose property had been
foreclosed ﬁled a bill to impeach for fraud the foreclosure
decree that had just been afﬁrmed. The bill alleged that
the plaintiffs in the underlying suit had conspired with the
attorney and directors of the plaintiff in the subsequent suit
to ensure that the property would be forfeited. The plain-
tiff in the subsequent suit was a Missouri corporation, and it

2 This form of action was also referred to as an “original action.”
3 The authorities that the Advisory Committee cited in its notes accom-
panying the 1946 amendment to the Rule list Paciﬁc as an example of this
cause of action. Moore & Rogers, Federal Relief from Civil Judgments,
55 Yale L. J. 623, 656 (1946); 3 J. Moore & J. Friedman, Moore’s Federal
Practice 3257, n. 12 (1938).