Threatt v. Winston
| Decision Date | 21 September 2006 |
| Docket Number | No. 04-CV-545.,No. 04-CV-191.,04-CV-191.,04-CV-545. |
| Citation | 907 A.2d 780 |
| Parties | Patrick THREATT, Appellant, v. Gregory WINSTON, Appellee. |
| Court | D.C. Court of Appeals |
Appeal from the Superior Court, Mary A. Gooden Terrell, J Ronald L. Webne, for appellant.
Sherman B. Robinson, for appellee.
Before FISHER, Associate Judge, and KING and SCHWELB,* Senior Judges.
This dispute arises out of a landlord-tenant relationship. Appellant Patrick Threatt sued Gregory Winston for wrongful eviction, breach of covenant of quiet enjoyment, and conversion of personal property. The trial court granted appellee's motion to dismiss, concluding that the action was barred because the Landlord-Tenant Branch of the Superior Court's Civil Division previously had entered a default judgment granting possession of the apartment to Winston. Appellant argues that he should not have been precluded from bringing his wrongful eviction action because the previous judgment was void for lack of personal jurisdiction. We hold that Threatt did not follow the correct procedures for attacking the prior judgment and therefore affirm.
In December of 1999, Patrick Threatt leased an apartment Gregory Winston owned at 3824 V Street, S.E. (Apartment 101). Within a few months a dispute arose about Threatt's alleged failure to pay rent. Efforts to resolve the dispute failed, and Winston filed a complaint for possession. Dwayne Boston submitted an Affidavit of Service By Special Process Server stating that after several unsuccessful attempts to personally serve Threatt, he had perfected service on June 21, 2000, by posting a copy of the complaint and summons on Threatt's apartment door. See D.C.Code § 16-1502 (2001) (entitled Service of summons).
Threatt failed to appear or defend, and on July 3, 2000, the Superior Court entered a default judgment granting possession of the apartment to Winston. Winston obtained a writ of restitution, and on August 7, 2000, the United States Marshals Service removed Threatt's belongings, placing them outside, by the street.
Threatt did not seek to vacate the judgment against him, nor did he appeal to this court. Instead, on October 9, 2001, more than fifteen months after the default judgment had been entered and more than fourteen months after the eviction had occurred, Threatt filed his civil complaint against Winston, seeking $1,000,000 in compensatory damages and $500,000 in punitive damages. Threatt's complaint did not mention either the default judgment or the writ of restitution.
Winston answered Threatt's complaint, but, inexplicably, he likewise failed to mention either the default judgment or the writ of restitution. It was only on October 27, 2003 — after a jury had already been empaneled to hear the case — that the default judgment came to the trial court's attention,1 during a colloquy about pre-trial issues:
Mr. Webne: That's one way to say it.
Mr. Webne: Exactly. . . .
After learning about the prior judgment, the court excused the jury and scheduled briefing and oral argument on whether the matter was properly before it. On February 6, 2004, at the conclusion of oral argument, Judge Terrell dismissed Threatt's complaint, explaining that it was barred under the doctrine of res judicata/collateral estoppel. Threatt timely noticed these appeals.2
Threatt first argues that it was improper for the trial court to raise the issue of res judicata sua sponte. He characterizes this intervention as raising an affirmative defense that Winston had neglected to plead. We do not agree with Threatt's characterization of the trial court's action or his legal conclusion.
We previously have made clear that while "res judicata is an affirmative defense that must be pleaded, . . . a trial court may raise res judicata grounds sua sponte in the interest of judicial economy where, [as here,] both actions were brought before the same court."4 Carrollsburg v. Anderson, 791 A.2d 54, 60 (D.C.2002) (citations and internal quotations omitted). As the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit persuasively explained:
[W]hile res judicata exists in part to shield parties from duplicative and vexatious litigation, the interests that courts protect are also often their own — or, more precisely, those of society. Courts today are having difficulty giving a litigant one day in court. To allow that litigant a second day is a luxury that cannot be afforded. . . . As res judicata belongs to courts as well as to litigants, even a party's forfeiture of the right to assert it . . . does not destroy a court's ability to consider the issue sua sponte.
Stanton v. District of Columbia Court of Appeals, 326 U.S.App. D.C. 404, 409, 127 F.3d 72, 77 (1997) (citations and internal quotations omitted). It clearly was within the trial court's discretion to raise the issue although the parties had failed to mention it.5
Threatt maintains that the doctrine of res judicata did not bar his wrongful eviction action because the default judgment granting possession to Winston was void for lack of personal jurisdiction. At oral argument he styled his complaint for damages as a permissible "collateral attack" on the previous judgment. We disagree and hold that, having allowed the time for appeal to expire, Threatt could attack the default judgment only by filing a motion to vacate pursuant to Superior Court Civil Rule 60(b)(4)6 or by filing the type of "independent action" to vacate the judgment specifically authorized by Rule 60(b). See Olivarius v. Stanley J. Sarnoff Endowment for Cardiovascular Science, Inc., 858 A.2d 457 (D.C.2004).
To be sure, we have held that a default judgment entered in the absence of effective service of process is void, even if the defendant has actual notice of the action. Jones v. Hersh, 845 A.2d 541, 546 (D.C. 2004) (citing Miranda v. Contreras, 754 A.2d 277, 281 (D.C.2000)). However, we have also stated that the concept of void judgments is to be narrowly construed and that "for a judgment to be void under Rule 60(b)(4),[7] it must be determined that the rendering court was powerless to enter it." Jones, 845 A.2d at 545 (internal citation and quotation omitted) (emphasis added). See also RESTATEMENT (SECOND) OF JUDGMENTS, ch. 5, intro. note, cmt. c (1982) ("a judgment can be said authoritatively to be `void' only after it has been attacked and declared to be such"). The key question is how does one properly establish that the prior judgment was void?
Threatt essentially argues that he is entitled to file a new complaint and to ignore the default judgment. If no one had raised the prior judgment as a bar, he would have tried his claim of wrongful eviction, hoping to win a verdict holding Winston liable for doing what the Superior Court previously had authorized him to do. If the defendant (or the court, as happened here) raised the issue of res judicata, Threatt would then assert that the prior judgment is void because he was not properly served with process. As we emphasized in Olivarius, however, "[r]espect for the finality of judgments is deeply engrained in our legal system." 858 A.2d at 466-67 n. 5 (citing Great Coastal Express, Inc. v. Int'l Brotherhood of Teamsters, 675 F.2d 1349, 1356 (4th Cir.1982)). Moreover, as a general principle, the "orderly administration of justice and comity between courts are served by requiring the applicant to seek relief in the court that rendered the judgment." RESTATEMENT (SECOND) OF JUDGMENTS, ch. 5, intro. note, cmt. a (1982). Allowing Threatt to proceed in his unorthodox fashion would undermine the finality of judgments, create confusion, and needlessly increase the amount of litigation in our busy trial court. The Superior Court rules have prescribed a more orderly, sensible procedure.
We previously have explained that Rule 60(b) "governs setting aside a default judgment." Arthur v. District of Columbia, 857 A.2d 473, 484 (D.C.2004). Accord, Combs v. Nick Garin Trucking, 263 U.S.App. D.C. 300, 304, 825 F.2d 437, 441 (1987) ();8 Calumet Lumber, Inc. v. Mid-America Indus., 103 F.3d 612, 614 (7th Cir.1997) (). The rule provides two mechanisms for doing this: "by motion . . . or by an independent action." On many occasions a litigant has filed a Rule 60(b)(4) motion arguing that a Superior Court default judgment was void because service of process was invalid. See, e.g., Edelhoff v. Shakespeare Theatre, 884 A.2d 643 (D.C.2005) (); Miranda v. Contreras, 754 A.2d at 281 (); Cruz v. Sarmiento, 737 A.2d 1021 (D.C.1999) (service by publication); McLaughlin v. Fidelity Security Life Insurance, 667 A.2d 105 (D.C.1995) (); Alexander v. Polinger Co., 496 A.2d 267 (D.C.1985) (service by posting).
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