Court Opinion

ID: 9623696
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 06:40:46.011037+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:52:52.280211
License: Public Domain

BISTLINE, Justice,
specially concurring.
The importance of the case suggests that some additional observations of my own may be in order.
Not only did Transport Tire not retain an attorney nor answer the complaint, it rather apparently made no effort to keep abreast of the pending litigation, nor ascertain that anyone else was doing so for it. Moreover, there is another facet of the case which is damaging to the application to set aside the default. Not only are there the time constraints of the Court’s rules, but there has always been the rule of case law requiring prompt action once the default has been discovered. A party seeking relief is not necessarily entitled to consume all of the rule-set time period, but should move with reasonable alacrity.
In Stoner v. Turner, 73 Idaho 117, 247 P.2d 469 (1952), the defendant’s motion was filed 33 days after learning of the default and engaging counsel, a factor which this *608Court considered in directing that the default be set aside. The Court of Appeals’ standards set in Avondale v. Hall, 104 Idaho 321, 327, 658 P.2d 992 (1983), if applied here, would also preclude any reversal.