Court Opinion

ID: 9584030
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:43:59.19541+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:05:38.014395
License: Public Domain

Judge VAUGHN
dissenting.
I must respectfully dissent for a number of reasons. In the first place, plaintiff is not a party aggrieved by the judgment against Moore from which she seeks to be relieved. She was obviously satisfied with that verdict and judgment. Her present predicament stems from her failure timely to take the steps necessary to get a judgment against a different entity — Nationwide. Moreover, even if plaintiff could be said to be entitled to any relief from that judgment, it would have to be based on either “Mistake, inadvertence, surprise, or excusable neglect.” Rule 60(b)(1). A motion on one of those grounds has long since been barred because it must be made within one year of the judgment. Significantly, plaintiffs motion does not set out the rule *412number or numbers under which she was proceeding, as required by Rule 6 of the General Rules of Practice for the Superior and District Courts. Finally, I cannot agree that Rule 60(b)(6), even if applicable, could afford plaintiff relief because, in my opinion, she has shown no reason “justifying relief’ within the meaning of that section (even if it could be said the motion was made within a reasonable time). The accident occurred on 30 October 1970, and plaintiff was aware that Moore was insured by Nationwide. On 29 October 1973, just before the action would have been barred by the statute of limitations, she filed her complaint against Frank William Moore. No notice was given to Nationwide, known by plaintiff to be Moore’s insurer. Alias and pluries summons were returned unserved, and Frank William Moore was served by publication in Mecklenburg County. On 30 April 1975, nearly two years after the suit was filed and nearly five years after the accident, plaintiff obtained a default judgment — still without giving Nationwide notice of the suit. Finally on 31 May 1977, nearly seven years after the accident, plaintiff tried to assert a claim against Nationwide. Moore, the insured, died in July 1978 in Rowan County. The order from which Nationwide appeals was entered 11 June 1980, nearly ten years after the accident occurred. To require Nationwide to defend this stale claim against its former insured whose voice is forever silenced, under the ruse of a Rule 60(b)(6) motion, is not a proper use of that “grand reservoir of equitable power to do justice in a particular case” referred to in 7 Moore’s Federal Practice, ¶ 60.27(2), at 375 (2d ed. 1979).
For the reasons stated, I respectfully suggest that the order from which defendant appeals should be reversed.