Opinion ID: 1286138
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Void Judgment

Text: As this Court recognized in Evans v. Holt, 193 W.Va. 578, 457 S.E.2d 515 (1995), a movant seeking relief under Rule 60(b)(4) of the West Virginia Rules of Civil Procedure must show that the judgment sought to be vacated is void and that the motion to vacate the judgment was filed within a reasonable period of time. Id. at 587, 457 S.E.2d at 524. Because we have determined that the default judgment entered against Appellants was void for lack of personal jurisdiction, Appellants have only one other hurdle to meet in seeking relief under Rule 60(b)(4). They are required to establish that they sought to vacate the default judgment within a reasonable time. See Evans, 193 W.Va. at 587, 457 S.E.2d at 524. The record in this case indicates that Appellants' motion to set aside the default judgment was filed with the trial court on March 27, 2008. That motion was filed within ten days of counsel's discovery that a default judgment was entered [23] against his clients on February 1, 2008. In Evans, we found a motion to set aside a void judgment to be timely filed when the filing occurred thirty days after the defendant received notice of the judgment and fourteen months after the judgment's entry. See 193 W.Va. at 587, 457 S.E.2d at 524. Significantly less time transpired in this case than in Evans as Appellants moved to set aside the default judgment less than two months after its entry and only ten days after learning of the judgment. We would be hard pressed to rule against Appellants on the issue of whether they sought to vacate the default judgment within a reasonable period of time under the facts of this case. Accordingly, we determine that the trial court erred in refusing to set aside the default judgment as void under Rule 60(b)(4). Based on the foregoing, the decision of the Circuit Court of Wirt County is reversed. Reversed.