Court Opinion

ID: 9752901
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 18:43:02.671681+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:27:25.117867
License: Public Domain

HOOD, Associate Judge
(dissenting).
I would affirm on the ground that the clerk had no authority to enter the judgment. One requirement for entry of default judgment by the clerk is that the verified complaint or affidavit shall set out the sum plaintiff ciaims to be due “exclusive of all set-offs and just grounds of defense.”1 The verification in the pres*158ent case failed to meet this requirement, and the clerk has no authority to waive any requirement of the rule. Cf. Williams v. Bradley, 2 App.D.C. 346. I think the judgment was void and relief therefrom was not controlled by the three months’ limitation of Rule 60(b). If not void it was so irregular as to warrant relief under ground (6) of that rule.

. Rule 39, Section A(a)': “In any action arising ex contractu, when the plaintiff’s claim against a defendant is for a sum certain or for a sum which by computation may be made certain, and the plaintiff shall have filed, at the time of bringing his action, a complaint verified by himself or by his agent, or shall have filed with his complaint an affidavit executed by himself or by his agent, and if said verified complaint or said affidavit shall set out the sum he claims to be due, exclusive of all set-offs and just grounds of defense, and a copy of said verified complaint or affidavit shall have been served upon the defendant, the clerk, upon request of the plaintiff or of his attorney, shall enter judgment for that amount and costs against the defendant, if the defendant is in default for failure to appear and defend, as provided in Rule 12, and provided further if the plaintiff or his attorney shall file at the same time an affidavit in compliance with the Soldiers and Sailors Civil Relief Act of 1940, as amended.”