Cent. Laborers' Pension v. Griffee Mw. Landscape

• Decision Date: 28 December 1999
• Docket Number: No. 99-1526,99-1526
• Citation: 198 F.3d 642
• Parties: (7th Cir. 1999) Central Laborers' Pension, Welfare and Annuity Funds, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. Ted Griffee, d/b/a Midwest Landscape Design and Construction, Defendant-Appellant
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

Page 642

198 F.3d 642 (7th Cir. 1999)

Central Laborers' Pension, Welfare and Annuity Funds, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. Ted Griffee, d/b/a Midwest Landscape Design and Construction, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 99-1526

In the United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit

Argued September 27, 1999

Decided December 28, 1999

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division. No. 96 C 6702--James B. Zagel, Judge.

Before Posner, Chief Judge, and Ripple and Rovner, Circuit Judges.

Posner, Chief Judge.

This appeal presents issues concerning service of process. The plaintiffs, a trio of affiliated multiemployer ERISA plans (a defined-benefit pension plan, a defined- contribution pension plan, and a welfare plan) for construction employees in Illinois, brought suit against a contractor named Griffee to recover some $29,000 in delinquent contributions, which if recovered were to be allocated among the three plans. The complaint was filed in October of 1996. In September of the following year, having failed to serve Griffee, the funds asked the district judge to dismiss their suit without prejudice, and he did so. Why they wanted to dismiss their suit is unclear; they didn't intend to abandon their efforts to collect the delinquent contributions, and they could have asked the judge for additional time within which to serve the defendants. Fed. R. Civ. P. 4(m); Troxell v. Fedders of North America, Inc., 160 F.3d 381 (7th Cir. 1998). They told us at argument that they felt that the district judge would prefer not to have an aging, inactive case on his docket.

By a curious coincidence, the very day after the suit was dismissed the summons and complaint in the now defunct suit were served upon Mr. Griffee by an official of one of the local unions whose members (including the official) are participants in the plans. A month later the plans moved the district court to reinstate their suit nunc pro tunc, backdating the reinstatement to the day on which the suit had been dismissed. And a month after that they filed a motion for entry of a default judgment. When Griffee, to whom they mailed a copy of the motion, did not respond to it, the judge granted the motion and entered judgment in the amount sought. Some months later, after the plaintiffs began efforts to collect the judgment, Griffee moved the court to vacate the default judgment as void, Fed. R. Civ. P. 60(b)(4); Swaim v. Moltan Co., 73 F.3d 711, 717- 18 (7th Cir. 1996), on the ground that service had been improper, not only because the suit had been dismissed before service was made but also because service had been made by a person who had a financial stake in the litigation.

A judgment is void if the court issuing it does not have jurisdiction over the defendant, e.g., Hanson v. Denckla, 357 U.S. 235, 249-50 (1958); In re Crivello, 134 F.3d 831, 838 (7th Cir. 1998); Koehler v. Dodwell, 152 F.3d 304, 306-07 (4th Cir. 1998), and it does not if the defendant is not served, e.g., Rogers v. Hartford Life & Accident Ins. Co., 167 F.3d 933, 940 (5th Cir. 1999); LSJ Investment Co. v. O.L.D., Inc., 167 F.3d 320, 324 (6th Cir. 1999), unless he waives service or makes an appearance in the case without reserving an objection to jurisdiction. Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(h); Ruhrgas AG v. Marathon Oil Co., 119 S. Ct. 1563, 1570 (1999); Koehler v. Dodwell, supra, 152 F.3d at 306. When Griffee was served in the initial lawsuit, that suit had been dismissed. A new suit (or reinstated old suit-- the difference, of no moment here because there is no statute of limitations issue, is only whether the plaintiffs had to pay a second filing fee, Central States, Southeast & Southwest Areas Pension Fund v. Lady Baltimore Foods, Inc., 960 F.2d 1339, 1346 (7th Cir. 1992)) was filed, but was never served, and so the court never acquired jurisdiction over the defendant. Hence the Rule 60(b)(4) motion should have been granted.

It is no answer that by granting the order of reinstatement nunc pro tunc the district judge brought the original suit back to life as of the day that Griffee was served, which was the day after that suit had been dismissed in order to keep the judge's docket pristine. As we have reminded the district courts time and again, the only proper office of a nunc pro tunc order is to correct a mistake in the records; it cannot be used to rewrite history. E.g., Transamerica Ins. Co. v. South, 975 F.2d 321, 325-26 (7th Cir. 1992); United States v. Daniels, 902 F.2d 1238, 1240 (7th Cir. 1990); King v. Ionization Int'l, Inc., 825 F.2d 1180, 1188 (7th Cir. 1987). If the suit had been dismissed on September 12 (the day after service), but the court's docket sheet had erroneously recorded the date of dismissal as September 10, then an order correcting the record as of the date of entry would have been proper. But there was no mistake to be corrected. The original suit really was...