Opinion ID: 397253
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Denial of the Motion to Dismiss

Text: 15 Defendants first contend that the District Court erred in denying their motion to dismiss the complaint simply because the motion was not accompanied by a supporting brief. We do not decide this issue because it is not properly before us. 16 Defendants did not raise the claim that their motion to dismiss had been improperly denied in support of their Rule 60(b)(1) motion, and this contention is not otherwise reviewable because defendants have not timely appealed directly from the default judgment. 17 The filing of a Rule 60(b)(1) motion neither affects the finality of the original judgment nor tolls the thirty day time limit of Fed.R.App.P. 4(a)(1) 2 for taking an appeal from that judgment. Browder v. Director, Ill. Dept. of Corrections, 434 U.S. 257, 263 n.7, 98 S.Ct. 556, 560 n.7, 54 L.Ed.2d 521 (1978); Needham v. White Laboratories, Inc., 639 F.2d 394, 397 n.4 (7th Cir. 1981), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 102 S.Ct. ----, 69 L.Ed.2d --- (U.S. Oct. 13, 1981). While Rule 4(a)(1) does permit a timely appeal from the denial of a Rule 60(b)(1) motion, such an appeal does not bring up the underlying judgment for review where the time for appeal from that judgment has run. Browder v. Director, Ill. Dept. of Corrections, 434 U.S. at 263 n.7, 98 S.Ct. at 560 n.7. 18 Here, the default judgment was entered August 25, 1980, but the notice of appeal was not filed until January 12, 1981. Thus, the notice of appeal was timely only as to the denial of the Rule 60(b)(1) motion, and our review is accordingly restricted to the propriety of the court's denial of that motion. Because defendants' Rule 60(b)(1) motion did not challenge the District Court's earlier denial of the motion to dismiss the complaint, we do not review that ruling here.