Opinion ID: 2455402
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Mistake vs. Neglect or Inattention

Text: Judge Robertson expounds the sense of Sprung I accurately, whereas the principal opinion's analysis of its holding is faulty. There was no purpose of circumscribing the court's historic equitable power. That defendant's counsel is guilty of mistake rather than inattention or neglect is shown by his proceeding with the other pretrial steps in the case. Decades of equity cases support the granting of relief under the undisputed facts of this case. The principal opinion simply ignores the strong line of authority. Judge Covington suggests, [A]ny neglect on the part of the lawyer will prevent vacating the default judgment except where the attorney has completely abandoned his client. This suggestion is flatly contrary to our opinion in Whitledge v. Anderson Air Activities, 276 S.W.2d 114 (Mo.1955), which would control the court of appeals cases cited in the principal opinion, to the extent that there is any conflict. That case involved confusion as to whether the defaulting defendant had insurance coverage. The trial judge expressly found as follows: Defendant is guilty of negligence and inexcusable neglect in failing to appear or plead in this case prior to January 21st, 1954. We nevertheless found an abuse of discretion when the trial court refused to set the judgment aside on motion. That case, which appears to be the latest pertinent word from this Court, furnishes ample authority for setting aside the default in this case. The majority should frankly say that it is now overruled. The principal opinion tries to distinguish that case on the basis that it involves abandonment rather than mistake. The attempted distinction is not at all persuasive, on the law and the facts. Can it be the law that a client may have relief if his attorney is greatly at fault, but not if there is but a single mistake? The logic of such a holding escapes me. I cannot see any possible basis for distinguishing Whitledge . The opinion shows that the defendant's counsel there performed essentially as defendant's counsel in this case. The principal opinion cites in qualification of Whitledge only Rucker v. Thrower, 559 S.W.2d 40, 41-42 (Mo.App.1977), in which a defendant sought to avoid a default judgment when the plaintiff sued out an execution. The case is totally distinguishable because there the defendant had previously moved to set aside the default judgment and then took, but failed to perfect, an appeal from the denial. Res judicata clearly barred collateral attack for relief which could have been obtained on the abandoned appeal. Sprung I, in holding that the defendant's motion stated a claim in equity, necessarily invites us to examine respected authorities such as Pomeroy's Equity Jurisprudence, originally published in 1881. To the passages relied on by Judge Robertson, I would add the following (5th Ed., 1941, Symons, § 856b): Mistake Must be Free from Culpable Negligence.As a second requisite, it has sometimes been said in very general terms that a mistake resulting from the complaining party's own negligence will never be relieved. This proposition is not sustained by the authorities. It would be more accurate to say that where the mistake is wholly caused by the want of that care and diligence in the transaction which should be used by every person of reasonable prudence, and the absence of which would be a violation of legal duty, a court of equity will not interpose its relief; but even with this more guarded mode of statement, each instance of negligence must depend to a great extent upon its own circumstances. It is not every negligence that will stay the hand of the court.... Missouri authorities are consistent. Moreland v. State Farm Fire and Casualty Co., 662 S.W.2d 556 (Mo.App.1983); Cameron State Bank v. Sloan, 559 S.W.2d 564 (Mo.App.1977); Berry v. Continental Life Insurance Co., 224 Mo.App. 1207, 33 S.W.2d 1016 (1931); New York Life Insurance Co. v. Gilbert, 215 Mo.App. 201, 256 S.W. 148 (1923). Judge Covington's concurrence, now speaking for three judges, fails to give attention to pertinent equitable authorities. It has been suggested that the rules for equitable relief from judgments differ from the principles governing contracts and deeds. That this is not so is shown by Restatement (Second) of Judgments § 67, comment b (1982): b. Excusable neglect. The first requirement is that the initial failure to respond to notice of the action be plausibly explained. This requirement is commonly referred to as excusable neglect, although that seems a misnomer because excusing the neglect depends not only on the circumstances of the initial failure to respond but also on the other conditions stated in this Section. At any rate, what must be shown is that the failure to respond was attributable to mishap and not indifference or deliberate disregard of the notice.... I cannot envisage a quotation which is more appropriate to describe the situation in this case. Also consistent with the authorities just cited, and supportive of the proposition that grounds for equitable relief from judgments are similar to those involving contracts and deeds, is Overton v. Overton, 327 Mo. 530, 37 S.W.2d 565 (1931). There a man had deeded 12 acres of land to his son before he died, out of a larger tract which he owned. On his subsequent death his heirs filed a partition suit in which the son was named as a defendant because he had a claim against the estate and declined to join as plaintiff. The attorney who prepared the petition included the son's 12 acres in the land description and the son allowed judgment in partition to be entered, assuming that the plaintiffs' attorney had described the land correctly. Final judgment was entered directing partition of property including the 12 acres. The 12 acres were sold and conveyed to another party. We held that the son was entitled to equitable relief against the final judgment in spite of his negligence in not checking the description. The opinion stated that this negligence was superinduced by the plaintiffs' attorney. It is plain from the cases cited that the mistake of defendant's counsel does not bar the relief now sought, if it is otherwise available in equity. Were the law otherwise, Sprung I would have been an exercise in futility, and should have simply sustained the default judgment, as there suggested by Judge Rendlen.