Court Opinion

ID: 9462425
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 22:40:46.534432+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:37:35.118013
License: Public Domain

GIBBONS, Circuit Judge
(concurring).
While I concur in the opinion of the Court certain points require clarification and emphasis.
In Klapprott v. United States, 335 U.S. 601, 69 S.Ct. 384, 93 L.Ed. 266 (1949), the Supreme Court held that a trial court is empowered by Fed.R.Civ.P. 60(b)(6) to vacate a judgment whenever such action is appropriate to accomplish justice. A year later it stressed that only in extraordinary circumstances should the trial court do so. Ackermann v. United States, 340 U.S. 193, 71 S.Ct. 209, 94 L.Ed. 1371 (1950). This Circuit has consistently held that in order to grant a motion under Rule 60(b)(6) the movant must allege and prove such extraordinary circumstances as will be sufficient to overcome our overriding interest in the finality of judgments. See, e. g., Stradley v. Cortez, 518 F.2d 488 (3d Cir. 1975); John E. Smith’s Sons Co. v. Lattimer Foundry & Machine Co., 239 F.2d 815 (3d Cir. 1956); Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. v. Alker, 234 F.2d 113 (3d Cir. 1956). Considering that the final judgment from which the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania seeks relief was a consent decree manifesting its earlier free, calculated and deliberate choice to forego use of the BAU basement for confinement of prisoners and that the need for protective segregation of prisoners at Western Penitentiary, which the Commonwealth now urges as a new condition justifying relief under Rule 60(b)(6), was certainly well known at the time of the consent decree, the Commonwealth probably will have a heavy burden of proof at the evidentiary hearing. See, e. g., Ackermann v. United States, supra at 198, 71 S.Ct. 209, 95 L.Ed. 207. Rule 60(b)(6) confers no standardless residual discretionary power to set aside judgments on mere second thought. See, e. g., United States v. 12.381 Acres of Land, etc., 109 F.Supp. 279, 282 (D.N.M.1953).
On the standing issue, I would only note that we have not here dealt with the proper procedure to be followed when the named representative of a certified class leaves the class after entry of final judgment. That issue would have been presented, if, for example, Mayber-ry had been unconditionally discharged from prison. In such a situation it certainly would be appropriate, and probably essential, for the district court to order the substitution of another class member as the named representative in order to litigate the interests of the remaining class members.
Finally, the confinement of prisoners in the BAU basement in violation of the consent decree for ten months prior to the date the Commonwealth moved for relief from that judgment presents a contempt issue which Mayberry raised for the first time in his appellate brief. This Court does have the power to hear that issue. Although the general rule is that absent exceptional circumstances an issue not raised in the lower court will not be heard on appeal, Bethlehem Mines Corp. v. United Mine Workers of America, 494 F.2d 726 (3d Cir. 1974), we have only recently reaffirmed that “this rule is only a rule of practice and may be relaxed whenever the public interest or justice so warrants.” Franki Foundation Co. v. Alger-Rau & Associates, Inc., 513 F.2d 581, 586 (3d Cir. 1975). Appellee has admitted being in violation of the consent decree for ten months with no attempt to notify the district court or to seek relief from that judgment. (Appel-lee’s Brief at 5). Scrupulous obedience of the orders of federal courts is surely a matter of overriding public interest.
We are remanding. I assume that the district court will, when the case is returned to it, give appropriate consideration to sanctions for what amounts to a fundamental challenge to the legal system under which we live. If judgments do not settle legal relationships, at least so long as they have not been modified by court action, there is little need for the priesthood of the judiciary. Witch doctors would do as well.