Appellate Law

Motion to Set Aside Default Judgment Tolls Appeal Deadline; Redundant Rule 59(e) Motion "Not Allowed"

The Court of Civil Appeals ordered the circuit court to set aside a default judgment. In doing so, the appellate court reviewed two less common points of post-judgment procedure. First, a motion to set aside a default judgment suspends the time for taking an appeal until the motion is ruled upon. Second, once a post-judgment motion is made, successive motions seeking the same relief are not allowed. Thibodeau v. Thibodeau, No. 2070924 (Ala. Civ. App. Dec. 5, 2008).

The husband in this divorce suit suffered a default judgment. This judgment was entered on February 26, 2008. Two days later, the husband moved to set it aside. The trial court denied this motion on May 27. The husband then (on May 28) filed a Rule 59(e) motion to alter, amend or vacate the judgment. The appellate court does not record whether the lower court acted on this motion. On July 3, 2008, the husband appealed.

The Court of Civil Appeals made two initial points of post-judgment procedure. First, it explained that the Rule 59(e) motion of May 28 was ineffective. If that motion was aimed at the default judgment of February 26, 2008, it came well outside the 30-day deadline of Rule 59(e), and was untimely. If it was directed at the May 27 denial of the husband’s motion to set aside the default judgment, then it breached the rule against successive post-judgment motions. The court explained: “Successive post-judgment motions by the same party, seeking essentially the same relief, are not allowed.” “[I]n either case, the husband’s motion to alter, amend, or vacate was of no effect.”

Second, the husband’s appeal was timely. That appeal was not from the Rule 59(e) motion, which the circuit court lacked jurisdiction to consider. (Though, again, the opinion does not say whether the lower court even addressed that motion.) The only order that would support an appeal was the May 27 denial of the husband’s motion to set aside the default judgment. The appeal from this order was timely. Motions to set aside a default judgment toll the running of the deadline for appeal; “time for filing begins to run again only when the trial court enters an order granting or denying the motion.”

The Court of Civil Appeals went on to reverse the denial of the husband’s motion to set aside the default judgment.

Full post as published by Alabama Appellate Watch on December 09, 2008 (boomark / email).