Court Opinion

ID: 9561272
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 18:06:06.172084+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:13:42.402778
License: Public Domain

ERICKSON, Justice,
dissenting:
I respectfully dissent. In Craig v. Rider, 651 P.2d 397 (Colo.1982), we held that a trial court may consider a number of factors in determining whether to set aside an order admitting a will to probate. Those factors include the movant’s negligence, the merit of the claim or defense, the opposing party’s reliance on the order, and the prejudice to the opposing party caused by the passage of time. Id. at 402. We declined to hold that the trial court must consider and hear evidence on each factor, and noted that the movant’s failure to satisfy even one of the criteria may justify denial of the movant’s request to vacate the judgment. Id.
The majority holds that the trial court committed reversible error when it failed to consider each of the criteria set forth in Craig, and, in effect, creates the type of balancing test that we wisely disapproved of in Craig. We said in Craig:
[The plaintiff] argues that a balancing test must be utilized to guide the trial court’s discretion in considering excusable neglect, meritorious defense, and possible prejudice to the parties. Our cases have never required this. Failure to satisfy even one of these criteria may result in denial of the movant’s request to set aside a default for good cause.
651 P.2d at 402.
In the present case, the trial court balanced the impact of the dismissal against the defendant’s ability to conduct an effective defense, and concluded that the prejudice to the defendant caused by the lapse of time outweighed the harm to plaintiff.1 Although “a consideration of all [the] factors together ... [is] the preferable procedure in most cases,” Craig, 651 P.2d at 402, the trial court did not abuse its discretion in this case. The difficult proof problems attendant to the defense of any “slip and fall” case are only exacerbated by the passage of time. Although the conduct of plaintiff’s former attorney in this case cannot be condoned, I do not believe it appropriate to impose the burden of that conduct on the defendant. The trial court properly considered the prejudice to the defendant caused by the plaintiff counsel’s failure to prosecute, and did not commit reversible error by denying the plaintiff’s motion to vacate on that ground alone. Although we may quarrel with the trial court’s conclusion, we should not substitute our judgment for that of the trial court on a discretionary ruling relating to the dismissal of a case for failure to prosecute.
*1119Accordingly, I would affirm the court of appeals.

. After briefs were submitted and after a full hearing, the court found:
[T]he Court has previously allowed this action to continue on the active docket even though no substantive progress has occurred since 1978, and the case was filed in 1976. This matter was reinstated by the Court in 1981 upon the motion of the plaintiff without notice to the defendant. On November 26, 1982, the Clerk of the Court sent a notice to the parties advising that the case would be dismissed unless cause was shown by written motion why it should not be dismissed within thirty (30) days from November 26th. No written motion or other documents were received by the Court within that thirty-day period, and the action was dismissed on December 28, 1982. Subsequently the plaintiff filed a Motion Not to Dismiss which was denied on January 26, 1983. On June 21, 1983, the plaintiff, by new counsel, filed the Motion for Relief from Order of Dismissal which is the subject of this hearing....
[The court] further finds that the client and attorney are virtually inseparable in the eyes of the law, and the legal system could not function effectively otherwise. The issues presented concern the right of the plaintiff to litigate her claim balanced against the ability of the defendant to conduct a defense. In this instance the prejudice to the defendant in attempting to defend such an old claim outweighs the harm to the plaintiff. Moreover, the plaintiff did not respond to the notice of pending dismissal within the time period prescribed. After being on the Court docket for seven years with no significant progress, the case must be terminated....