Court Opinion

ID: 9756807
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 22:01:19.335886+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:28:29.577888
License: Public Domain

Vanderbilt, C. J.
(dissenting). I disagree with the majority on two grounds.
1. I fear that the opinion of the majority will lead to a weakening, and if pursued generally, to a breakdown of the orderly administration of appellate proceedings.
. The plaintiff appealed from the judgment of dismissal granted to the defendants at the end of the plaintiff’s case in the district court. The defendant Goldyn moved to dismiss this appeal on the ground that the notice of appeal to the Appellate Division was not filed in proper time nor was the statement in lieu of a stenographic record served within the time set by the rules. The Appellate Division denied this motion and in doing so extended the time of the plaintiff to file her notice of appeal and statement. The proceedings were perfected and the statement in lieu of a record was settled on June 1, 1955. The plaintiff’s brief was due within 30 days of that date, 2?. 22. 1:7-12(a), 2:7-3, but was not served or filed within that time. Some 76 days thereafter the defendant again moved to dismiss the appeal. The plaintiff’s brief was finally served eight days later, which was 54 days out of time.
The only explanation given for such conduct by counsel for the plaintiff was that extensive research dating back into the early 19th Century, coupled with the unusually hot summer of 1955, delayed him beyond the time provided by the rules. His brief, however, reveals no such extensive efforts on his part and his explanation of his delay seems quite fanciful. Ho explanation was given for his failure to seek further relaxation of the rules.
Counsel for the plaintiff in this case has very obviously shown that he holds himself above the rules promulgated by this court to govern appeals. He was fortunate enough to escape difficulty as a result of his initial disregard of the rules; he should have emerged a wiser man as a result of his experience. Instead, he .chose to further disregard the rules by failing to file the appellant’s brief within the *256time allotted, by neglecting to seek relief voluntarily under R. R. 1:27A and 1:27B from the plight in which he alleges he found himself, and by putting the respondents’ counsel to the added and unnecessary burden of having to again move to dismiss the appeal before filing his brief 54 days out of time. Such conduct by plaintiff’s counsel is clearly contemptuous and should not be tolerated or dealt with passively.
I would reprimand counsel for his utter disregard of the rules of court as to which he is charged with knowledge. No attorney should get the idea that no matter how complacent or negligent he is with respect to abiding by the rules, neither he nor his client will suffer because the court will pull the chestnuts out of the fire and for the sake of justice to a personally blameless client permit a consideration of the matter on the merits.
I would also recommend that the Appellate Division adopt as a general policy the practice used by Part B when the occasion requires it and fine attorneys who are guilty of contemptuous violations of the rules of court resulting in the delay of the judicial process on appeal instead of punishing their innocent clients.
2. On the merits, I cannot agree that there is not sufficient proof that the persons to whom the defamatory remarks were made did not understand that they related to the plaintiff. The references to “Mary” made by the defendant Hamot when the plaintiff was at her workbench and by the defendant Goldyn when she passed the plaintiff’s house is clear proof to me that the taunts of these malicious gossip mongers referred to “Mary,” the plaintiff here, in the absence of any proof by them that there was another “Mary” to whom their slander was directed.
I would reverse and remand the matter for a new trial.
For affirmance of District Court and reversal of Appellate Division — Justices Heher, Oliphant, Wachenfeld, Burling, Jacobs and Weintraub — 6.
For reversal — Chief Justice Vanderbilt — 1.