Opinion ID: 419641
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Imputing conduct to defendants.

Text: 64 Most courts are understandably hesitant to impute the misdeeds of a lawyer to his client. To do that shifts the focus of a case away from the dispute between the parties and penalizes parties less culpable than the lawyer. Default judgments are not meant for disciplining a member of the bar at the expense of a litigant's day in court. Jackson v. Beech, 636 F.2d at 837. 65 Nevertheless, important factors lead us to affirm the district court's order. First, much of the damage caused by the defendants' negligence and their lawyer's neglect cannot be undone. Inryco has suffered a two-year delay in resolving its dispute. The court especially was victimized. It spent time and money attempting to administer the lawsuit, only to be frustrated by the defendants' failures to act. Furthermore, the court's efforts indicated that a lesser sanction likely would not have been effective. 66 The defendants stress that they manifested innocence by quickly curing procedural defaults and moving to vacate as soon as they learned of Royce's mismanagement. This argument is not persuasive: the remedial actions after the judgment of default do not excuse the months of egregious neglect. See generally Universal Film Exchanges, Inc. v. Lust, 479 F.2d 573, 576-77 (4th Cir.1973) ([T]he client must pay, at least initially, the penalty of his counsel's neglect. (citing Link v. Wabash R.R.)).