Reading v. U.S.

• Decision Date: 13 September 2007
• Docket Number: Civil Action No. 06-1873 (RMU).
• Citation: 506 F.Supp.2d 13
• Parties: Clare READING et al., Plaintiffs, v. UNITED STATES et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Columbia

Page 13

506 F.Supp.2d 13

Clare READING et al., Plaintiffs, v. UNITED STATES et al., Defendants.

Civil Action No. 06-1873 (RMU).

United States District Court, District of Columbia.

September 13, 2007.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Clare Reading, Mesa, AZ, pro se.

James L. Reading, Mesa, AZ, pro se.

Pat S. Genis, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, DC, for Defendants.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

DENYING THE PLAINTIFFS' MOTION FOR RECONSIDERATION; DENYING THE PLAINTIFF'S' MOTION TO STRIKE; AND DENYING AS MOOT THE PLAINTIFFS' MOTION TO DISPOSE OF MOTIONS

URBINA, District Judge.

I. INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND

The pro se plaintiffs return to the court with a motion for reconsideration of the order dismissing their complaint. The complaint maintains that the United States seized the plaintiffs' truck in relation to the government's tax assessment and collection duties. Compl. ¶¶ 8-16. It seeks an injunction preventing the defendants from selling the truck at a tax auction, the vehicle's return and monetary damages. Id. at 36-37. The plaintiffs filed an affidavit of default on February 9, 2007. On February 16, 2007, the clerk of the court entered a default against the defendants. The same day, the defendants moved for dismissal. Defs.' Mot. to Dismiss at 16. On February 22, 2007, the defendants followed up with a motion to vacate the entry of default. The plaintiffs filed no response to either motion. On March 2, 2007, the court granted both of the defendants' motions and dismissed the plaintiffs' complaint, citing lack of service, failure to exhaust remedies, lack of subject-matter jurisdiction and concession by failure to respond.

On March 8, 2007, the plaintiffs filed a motion for reconsideration. On March 23, 2007, the defendants filed an opposition. The plaintiffs replied on March 28, 2007 with a motion to strike the opposition. The defendants did not respond. On August 24, 2007, the plaintiffs filed a motion requesting that the court dispose of the pending matters. Because the plaintiffs offer no persuasive reasoning for the court to reverse its decision or to strike the defendant's opposition, the court denies their motion for reconsideration and their motion to strike. Because this disposes of all pending matters, the court denies the plaintiffs' August 24, 2007 motion as moot.

II. ANALYSIS

Challenging the order of dismissal, the plaintiffs argue that the court failed to advise them of their duty to respond to the motion to dismiss, that they were denied an opportunity to oppose the defendants' motion to vacate the entry of default, that service was proper, that the court has jurisdiction over their claims under numerous statutes and that they did exhaust administrative remedies and further efforts would have been futile. Pls.' Mot. for Reconsid. ¶¶ 21, 25, 27, 43.

A. Legal Standard for Motion for Reconsideration of Final Judgment

Under Rule 60(b), the Court may grant a party relief from an adverse judgment on grounds, inter alia, of "mistake, inadvertence, surprise, ... excusable neglect[,] ... [or] newly discovered evidence which by due diligence could not have been discovered." FED.R.CIV.P. 60(b); see Gonzalez v. Crosby, 545 U.S. 524, 528, 125 S.Ct. 2641, 162 L.Ed.2d 480 (2005) (stating that "Rule 60(b) allows a party to seek relief from a final judgment ... under a limited set of circumstances") (footnote omitted). "Relief under Rule 60(b)(1) motions is rare; such motions allow district courts to correct only limited types of substantive errors." Hall v. CIA 437 F.3d 94, 99 (D.C.Cir.2006). In general, "Rule 60(b) was intended to preserve the delicate balance between the sanctity of final judgments and the incessant command of the court's conscience that justice be done in light of all the facts." Smalls v. United States, 471 F.3d 186, 191 (D.C.Cir.2006) (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). The rule "cannot be employed simply to rescue a litigant from strategic choices that later turn out to be improvident." Id. (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). Moreover, "Rio obtain Rule 60(b) relief, the movant must give the [court] reason to believe that vacating the judgment will not be an empty exercise or a futile gesture." Norman v. United States, 467 F.3d 773, 775 (D.C.Cir.2006) (internal quotation marks and citation omitted).

Because the plaintiffs never responded to the defendants' motion to dismiss and motion to vacate, and in light of the absence of a letter from the court to the pro se plaintiffs advising them that this omission jeopardized their case, the court will not apply the standard of a motion for reconsideration. Instead, the court will construe the plaintiffs' motion for reconsideration as an opposition to the above motions and apply the legal standard appropriate for deciding a motion to dismiss and a motion to vacate entry of default, which are set forth below.

B. The Plaintiffs' Procedural Rights Have Not Been Infringed

The plaintiffs argue that because they were denied an opportunity to oppose the defendants' motion to vacate the entry of default their procedural rights were infringed, and, therefore, the court should vacate its order of dismissal. Pls.' Mot. for Reconsid. ¶ 21. Default judgments are disfavored by modern courts. Jackson v. Beech, 636 F.2d 831, 835 (D.C.Cir.1980). Accordingly, under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 55(c), so long as judgment has not yet been entered, a default may be set aside for "good cause shown." Id. (quoting FED.R.Civ.P. 55(c)). The decision to set aside an entry of default rests in the discretion of the district court. Keegel v. Key West & Caribbean Trading Co., Inc., 627 F.2d 372, 373 (D.C.Cir.1980). In exercising such discretion, a court must consider whether (1) the default was willful, (2) a vacatur would prejudice the plaintiff, and (3) the alleged defense was meritorious. Id.

The defendants filed their motion to vacate the entry of default on February 22, 2007, six days after they filed their motion to dismiss. Significantly, the motion to vacate recited the same arguments that appeared in the motion to dismiss. Defs.' Mot. to Vacate Default at 1 (referring the court to the motion to dismiss for the arguments in support of the motion to vacate). Among other points, the motion to dismiss argued that the plaintiffs, by personally serving the defendants, failed to effect proper service. Mar. 2, 2007 Order at 2, 2007 WL 1267283.

As an initial matter, good cause exists for vacatur when the defendant pleads a failure to effect service by the plaintiffs. Bennett v. United States, 462 F.Supp.2d 35 (D.D.C.2006). Lack of prejudice to the plaintiffs further supports the court's granting of vacatur. The "entry of a default is largely a formal matter and is in no sense a judgment by default." MOORE'S FED. PRAC. ¶ 55.03[2], at 55-21 (2d ed.1994). Indeed, where the United States is the defendant, a default judgment may not be entered "unless the claimant establishes a claim or right to relief by evidence satisfactory to the court." FED.R.Civ.P. 55(e). Consequently, the plaintiffs could not have merely rested their case on the entry of default by the Clerk's office; rather, they would have had to respond to the defendants' arguments in the motion to dismiss. Under these circumstances, the vacatur caused no prejudice.

Additional reasons demonstrate an absence of harm. When a plaintiff is ultimately granted an opportunity to respond on the merits, he suffers no prejudice. See Guthery v. United States, 2007 WL 259940 at *2 (D.D.C. Jan.30, 2007) (granting vacatur on grounds of lack of prejudice to the pro se plaintiff from the defendant filing motion to dismiss two days late). The court has construed the plaintiffs' current motion for reconsideration as an opposition to the defendants' original motions, and foregone applying the more stringent standard associated with a motion for reconsideration. The plaintiffs' inability to respond to the motion to vacate, therefore, caused them no harm, as they were ultimately afforded an opportunity to adjudicate this case on the merits.

The plaintiffs also claim that because the court failed to advise them of their duty to respond to the motion to dismiss, it denied them their procedural rights under Fox v. Strickland, 837 F.2d 507 (D.C.Cir.1988), requiring the trial court to issue a notice to a pro se plaintiff of the consequences of failing to respond to a dispositive motion. Pls.' Mot. for Reconsid. ¶ 21. Here, however, the absence of an order advising the plaintiffs to respond to the motion to dismiss did not prejudice them. As an initial matter, the court disposed of the motion on several grounds independent of concession by the plaintiffs for failure to respond. Mar. 2, 2007 Order at 2, 2007 WL 1267283; cf. Fox, 837 F.2d at 509 (noting that trial court dismissed complaint after treating motion to dismiss as conceded). Furthermore, the court's subsequent consideration of the plaintiffs' motion for reconsideration provided them a renewed opportunity to respond in full to the motion to dismiss. Guthery, 2007 WL 259940 at *2; see also Wemhoff v. Floria, 961 F.2d 964, 964 (C.A.D.C.1992) (finding no prejudice when court ultimately addressed the arguments of the opponent to a motion to dismiss in a final order); Donovan v. Local 6, Wash. Teachers' Union, AFL-CIO, 747 F.2d 711, 720 (D.C.Cir.1984). The opportunity for the pro se plaintiff to respond to a dispositive motion is precisely the right that the notice requirement secures. Ham v. Smith, 653 F.2d 628, 630 (D.C.Cir.1981). Were the court to grant the plaintiffs' motion for reconsideration due to the alleged procedural defects, the granted relief (renewed briefing on the motion to dismiss) would accomplish nothing other than to waste the parties and the court's time — a frivolous end, indeed.

The plaintiffs further argue that because the defendants filed their opposition to the motion for reconsideration three days late, it should be...