Christian v. All Persons Claiming Any Right
| Citation | 277 F.Supp.2d 610 |
| Decision Date | 14 August 2003 |
| Docket Number | No. CIV.A. 398/1980.,CIV.A. 398/1980. |
| Parties | Eric CHRISTIAN, Sr., as Administrator of the Estate of James George Sewer, et. al., Plaintiff, v. ALL PERSONS CLAIMING ANY RIGHT, TITLE OR INTEREST IN ALL PROPERTIES KNOWN AND DESCRIBED AS: All Properties known as Newfound Bay including but not limited to 9A, 9D, and 9G Newfound Bay, Newfound Bay No. 1, Newfound Bay No. 2 excepting only 9C Newfound Bay East End Quarter, St. John, V.I.; Black Rock, No. 6R Estate Hansen Bay, East End Quarter, St. John, V.I.; John George, Parcel of Robert Avison, No. 6Q Estate Hansen Bay, East End Quarter, St. John, V.I.; Christian Hughes, Longbay No. 2, East End Quarter, St. John, V.I.; 7A Hansen Bay East End Quarter, St. John, V.I., Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Virgin Islands |
Irvin A. Sewer, St. Thomas, VI, Pro se.
Maria T. Hodge, Esq., Hodge & Francois, Karl R. Percell, Esq., Desmond L. Maynard, Esq., St. Thomas, VI, for Defendants.
This Court entered a Consent Judgment in this action on June 2, 1994, to which all parties, including all claimants to the above-captioned parcels of land, with the exception of Defendant Newfound Corporation, stipulated on the record. In a subsequent Opinion and Order dated April 11, 1997, the Court denied a motion by Defendant Irvin A. Sewer, one of the parties who stipulated to the 1994 Consent Judgment, to have the entire judgment declared "null and void." See Eric Christian v. All Persons Claiming any Right, Title, or Interest in all Properties Known and Described, etc., 962 F.Supp. 676, 679-682 (D.Virgin Islands 1997) (Brotman, J.) (). Presently before the Court is Sewer's second motion to vacate the 1994 Consent Judgment. For the reasons set forth below, Sewer's motion must be denied.
The factual and procedural history of this action is lengthy and complex and, to a large extent, not relevant to deciding the motion currently before the Court. However, to put Sewer's motion in context, the Court will briefly review some of the more significant events in the long and tortured history of this litigation.
This case was initially filed in 1980 as a probate action brought by various persons claiming status as heirs to the Estate of James George Sewer. The underlying issues in the litigation related to a dispute over the title and boundaries of several tracts of land located in the Hansen Bay and Newfound Bay Estates in the East End Quarter of St. John. The Court appointed Eric Christian as administrator to the Estate and, on December 15, 1987, he filed an action to quiet title to each of the parcels in dispute. Irvin Sewer (as representative for the Heirs of Martin Sewer), Cedrick Lewis (as administrator for the Estate of Bernard Williams), Newfound Management Corporation (a Massachusetts-based limited partnership), and various persons claiming to be the heirs of decedent Amos Sullivan, all intervened as defendants in the action.
On the eve of trial in December 1993, all of the parties, with the exception of Defendant Newfound Corporation, reached a settlement and agreed to stipulate to a judgment by consent. The Court endorsed the terms of the parties agreement and, on June 2, 1994, entered a detailed Consent Judgment which resolved a substantial portion of the issues in the quiet title action and expressly reserved jurisdiction over this matter to ensure compliance with the terms of the judgment. The provisions of the 1994 Consent Judgment relevant to Sewer's present motion awarded title two tracts of land identified as Parcel 6P Hansen Bay and Parcel 6Q Hansen Bay. With respect to Parcel 6P, the Consent Judgment provided as follows:
Parcel 6p Hansen Bay, East End Quarter, St. John, Virgin Islands, sometimes known as Long Bay # 2, and referred to in the complaint as "Christian Hughes," consisting of 4 acres as recorded, is awarded to the defendants, Estate of Bernard Williams and Irvin Sewer for the Heirs of Martin Sewer. This parcel shall be surveyed and the survey shall be subject to the mutual approval of the defendants who are awarded title thereto under this judgment, prior to recording. Defendants taking title to this parcel shall be responsible for the costs of this survey. The parties taking title to this parcel shall bear equally the costs of surveying the parcel.
The portion of the Consent Judgment relating to Parcel 6Q Hansen Bay mandated that the property be "divided into 3 sections," with [t]itle to the 3 sections . . . awarded to the following parties in the following proportions:
. . . defendants, Heirs of Amos Sullivan, . . . [are] awarded 3/4 of an acre together with a one half interest in the half acre portion called "John George", and a one third interest in the remaining 1 ¾ acre portion; . . . defendant, Estate of Bernard Williams, is awarded a 1/4 interest in the half acre portion called "John George" and a one third interest in the remaining 1 ¾ acre portion; . . . [and] defendant Irvin Sewer for the Heirs of Martin Sewer, is awarded a 1/4 interest in the half acre portion called "John George" and a one third interest in the remaining 1 ¾ acre portion.
As with Parcel 6P, those parties taking title to the land agreed to share the costs of obtaining a proper survey of the property.
In a separate order, the Court severed the adverse claims of Newfound, the Estate of Bernard Williams, and Irvin Sewer, to Parcel 6P and several other disputed parcels and consolidated those claims for trial with a pending injunction/trespass action filed by Newfound on August 16, 1991. Following a two-day bench trial, and an exhaustive review of the documentary evidence and testimony presented by the parties, the Court issued a comprehensive Opinion and Order which, inter alia, reaffirmed the terms of the 1994 Consent Judgment, and quieted title to Parcel 6P in favor of Sewer and the Estate of Bernard Williams. See Newfound Management Corporation v. Irvin A. Sewer, et. al., 885 F.Supp. 727, 771-773 (D.Vi.1995). However, the Court was unable to determine 6P's precise location and boundaries, as the parties had not arranged for a proper survey of the parcel, as required by the Consent Judgment. Id. at 774. Defendants Sewer and Lewis appealed this ruling to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, which issued a ruling on November 12, 1997, affirming the Court's opinion and remanding the action for further proceedings, including a determination of the precise location and boundaries of Parcel 6P. See Newfound Management Corporation v. Lewis, 131 F.3d 108 (3d Cir.1997).
On January 19, 1999, after conducting additional proceedings in accordance with the Third Circuit's remand order, the Court issued findings of fact and conclusions of law in which it accepted and adopted a survey map depicting the specific location and boundaries of Parcel 6P. See Newfound Management Corporation v. Sewer, 34 F.Supp.2d 305, 312-313 (D.Vi. 1999) (Brotman, J.). This survey, which was prepared by Harry Gauriloff, a licensed surveyor with extensive experience surveying disputed lands on St. Thomas and St. John, has been duly recorded with the Office of the Lieutenant Governor and designated as O.L.G. A9-532-T99. See id. at 308. Although Gauriloff's survey of Parcel 6P determined its size as approximately 7.01 acres and not the 4 acres recited in the 1994 Consent Judgment, the Court dismissed concerns about this apparent discrepancy, concluding that "[a]ny description of Parcel 6p as approximately four acres, as in the 1994 Stipulation of Entry of Consent Judgment, was included to further identify the parcel, not to define its size or boundaries." Id. at 313. Neither Sewer nor any of the other parties to the litigation appealed this ruling.
On June 5, 2001, the Court issued findings of fact and conclusions of law in the Eric Christian Action, the original quiet title action, in which it approved and adopted a survey indicating the precise location and boundaries of Parcel 6Q. See 144 F.Supp.2d 420, 437 (D.Vi.2001) (Brotman, J.). This survey, which was completed on November 14, 1996 and duly filed with the Office of the Lieutenant Governor, was prepared by Edward Gibney, a registered land surveyor with considerable experience surveying property in the Virgin Islands. Id. at 424-25. As was the case with Parcel 6P, in outlining the outer boundary of Parcel 6Q, Gibney's survey determined its size to be approximately 7 acres and not the three acres reflected in the 1994 Consent Judgment.1 Id. The Court nevertheless adopted the boundaries depicted on Gibney's survey. In doing so, the Court explicitly rejected Sewer's contention that Gibney's findings contravened the terms of the 1994 Consent Judgment. Id. at 431-33. As the Court explained, in entering into the Consent Judgment, the parties made certain . . .
. . . assumptions regarding the acreage amount based on a previous survey of Parcel 6Q, which had indicated that the parcel was three acres. This mistaken belief, however, [was] not material to the agreement itself . . . The acreage descriptions within the Consent Judgment's discussion of Parcel 6q were included to further identify the properties, not to define the parcel's size or boundaries . . . The essence of the agreement with respect to Parcel 6q was not to award a certain number of acres to the parties, but to divide the property between the three Defendants in the proportions outlined in the Consent Judgment. [Accordingly, because] [t]he specified acreage language regarding 6q merely affect[ed] a matter collateral to the division of the property . . .
the apparent discrepancy between this language and the boundaries depicted on Gibney's survey map does not constitute grounds for rescinding the parties' stipulated consent judgment. Id. at 431. Sewer appealed this ruling to the Third Circuit Court of...
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Gordon v. Monoson, CIV.1984–260.
...Rules of Civil Procedure 60(b)(4)60(b)(6) must be made “within a reasonable time.” Fed.R.Civ.P. 60; see also Christian v. 9A Newfound Bay, 277 F.Supp.2d 610, 618 n. 4 (D.Vi.2003) (noting that “while relief under subsections (3) through (6) [of Rule 60] is not limited by any strictly defined......