Court Opinion

ID: 9696815
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 18:59:21.014588+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:26.830988
License: Public Domain

SCOLNIK, Justice,
with whom WATHEN, Justice, joins, dissenting.
I respectfully dissent.
In this case, the defendant Roberts was given assurances by plaintiffs employee that the law suit served on him was mistakenly instituted and steps would be taken to correct the error. Relying on such assurances, Roberts failed to notify his attorney and no responsive pleading was filed and as a result a default judgment was entered against him. On these facts, the justice found Roberts’s neglect in failing to answer the complaint as required by M.R. Civ.P. 12 to be excusable. In this determination I conclude the justice committed an abuse of discretion.
On a consistent basis we have strictly construed the term “excusable neglect.” Specifically, we have held that a wife’s mistaken belief that her husband’s bankruptcy petition would stay proceedings against her does not constitute “good cause,” McNutt v. Johansen, 477 A.2d 738, 740 (Me.1984); that a defendant had no basis for assuming that a law suit had come to a standstill when his attorney filed a motion to withdraw, Cutillo v. Gerstel, 477 A.2d 750, 752 (Me.1984); and that no excuse was shown for the failure to respond to two deposition notices, Porges v. Reid, 423 A.2d 542, 544 (Me.1980).
This court should now hold that in the absence of fraud, one who does not file a responsive pleading as required by the rules of procedure in reliance upon a statement by an adverse party’s employee that the suit was commenced in error, fails to establish excusable neglect.
I would vacate the judgment.