Court Opinion

ID: 9553348
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 19:28:24.730593+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:30:52.915964
License: Public Domain

FROEB, Judge
(dissenting).
In a motion for summary judgment, the court “tries” issues of law, though not issues of fact. The purpose of Rule 59 is to allow an aggrieved party to seek relief from a judgment which materially affects his rights. The fact that the prevailing party recovers judgment in a summary proceeding pursuant tó Rule 56 does not mean that it cannot be reviewed by the trial court by a motion under Rule 59. In my opinion it is the intention of Rule 59 to include a motion to vacate a summary judgment. This has been the interpretation consistently placed upon Rule 59 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. See, for example, Gainey v. Brotherhood of Railway & Steamship Clerks, supra. It would seem strange indeed to leave summary judgments out of rule 59 when other judgments are included. In my opinion the holding of Arizona State Liquor Board v. Slonsky, supra, is not applicable to this case, primarily because it did not deal with whether a summary judgment can be timely vacated by the trial court pursuant to Rule 59. Although it is true there is no mention in either Rule 59 or Rule 73(b) of a “motion to reconsider,” a party seeking to vacate a summary judgment is placed in a semantic dilemma as to whether to call the motion a “motion for new trial” when a full trial in the usual sense is not what he seeks, or to call it by some other name, such as a “motion to reconsider.” I believe appellant in this case presented a motion which is encompassed by Rule 73(b) because it is tantamount to a “motion for new trial” under Rule 59.