Barry v. Atkinson

193 F.R.D. 197, 2000 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6885, 2000 WL 640639
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedMay 18, 2000
DocketNo. 96 Civ.8436(PKL)
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 193 F.R.D. 197 (Barry v. Atkinson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Barry v. Atkinson, 193 F.R.D. 197, 2000 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6885, 2000 WL 640639 (S.D.N.Y. 2000).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM ORDER

LEISURE, District Judge.

Pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 60(b), defendant moves for vacatur of the judgment entered by the Court in this action on August 17, 1999, and amended on November 8, 1999. Plaintiffs join defendant in this motion, submitted to the Court on May 12, 2000.1 For the reasons stated below, the parties’ motion is denied.

BACKGROUND

Following a bench trial of this matter, the Court issued its findings of fact and conclusions of law by Opinion and Order dated August 10,1999. Judgment entered in plaintiffs’ favor on August 17, 1999, in the amount of $534,130.13. On August 30,1999, plaintiffs moved to amend the judgment to increase the award of attorneys’ fees and prejudgment interest. On November 3, 1999, the Court granted plaintiffs’ motion in part, and on November 8, 1999, an amended judgment was entered.

While plaintiffs’ motion to amend the judgment was sub judice, two other developments occurred in this case. On September 14, 1999, defendant filed a notice of appeal to the United States Court of Appeal for the Second Circuit. On December 9, 1999, the Second Circuit issued its mandate, indicating that defendant’s appeal had been withdrawn. In addition, while defendant’s appeal was pending, plaintiffs moved by order to show cause to have the Court’s judgment certified to the United States District Court for the District of Nevada, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1963. Following a hearing on October 20, 1999, the Court granted plaintiffs’ motion by Order dated the same day. When the amended judgment was entered on November 8, 1999, the Court further directed the Clerk of Court to certify the amended judgment to the District of Nevada.

There has been no activity in this case since defendant withdrew his appeal in December 1999. The parties now inform the Court that they have entered a “confidential settlement agreement” with respect to the claims brought by plaintiffs here and in other districts, and ask the Court to vacate its judgment in the interest of protecting defendant’s reputation against certain findings of fact with which he disagrees.

DISCUSSION

Rule 60(b)(6) permits the Court to “relieve a party or a party’s legal representative from a final judgment, order, or proceeding for ... any ... reasons justifying relief from the operation of the judgment.” Fed. R.Civ.P. 60(b). A motion made under this provision must be brought “within a reasonable time.” Id. Motions for vacatur are “addressed to the sound discretion of the district court,” Nemaizer v. Baker, 793 F.2d 58, 61-62 (2d Cir.1986), and are reviewed only for abuse of discretion. See Nestle Co. v. Chester’s Market, Inc., 756 F.2d 280 (2d Cir.1985).

As a threshold matter, the Court finds that the parties did not bring their motion within a reasonable time, as required by Rule 60(b)(6). The Court issued its findings of fact and conclusions of law in this case more than nine months ago. Despite this passage of time and the flurry of post-trial motions, this is the first time the parties have taken issue with the Court’s findings of fact. The question of timeliness aside, the Court finds that the parties’ motion is without merit.

The parties do not argue that the Court committed some manifest error in its fact-finding role, but that certain language [199]*199used by the Court “is, in the opinion of the parties, contrary to the record in this case and could have a devastating effect upon Defendant, both personally and professionally, and upon non-parties to this case.” Br. at 2-3. The parties fail entirely to substantiate their conelusory allegations that the Court’s findings are somehow flawed and will work some injustice to defendant. Thus, the Court sees no reason to disturb its judgment based on the submission of the parties or the record in this case.

The parties’ legal argument is similarly untenable. In support of their contention that the Court should vacate its judgment in this case, the parties rely on Nestle, which they describe as the “seminal case” on this issue. Br. at 3. Nestle, however, deals with vacatur of a district court judgment to facilitate settlement of a case still pending on appeal. Not only is Nestle inapposite here, but, as the parties note, its application has been widely called into question by rulings of the Second Circuit and the Supreme Court, see U.S. Bancorp Mortgage Co. v. Bonner Mall Partnership, 513 U.S. 18, 115 S.Ct. 386, 130 L.Ed.2d 233 (1994); Major League Baseball Properties, Inc. v. Pacific Trading Cards, Inc., 150 F.3d 149, 151 (2d Cir.1998); Manufacturers Hanover Trust Co. v. Yanakas, 11 F.3d 381 (2d Cir.1993), as well as by recent cases from this District. See, e.g., Austin v. Ford, 181 F.R.D. 283 (S.D.N.Y. 1998); Jewelers Vigilance Cmte., Inc. v. Vitale Inc., 177 F.R.D. 184 (S.D.N.Y.1998); Agee v. Paramount Communications, Inc., 932 F.Supp. 85 (S.D.N.Y.1996).

In these and other eases, the legal standard for vacatur is characterized as a balancing test, by which the courts must weigh “the interests of honoring settlements reached by the parties against the public interest in the finality of judgments and the development of decisional law.” Jewelers Vigilance Cmte., 177 F.R.D. at 186 (citing Nestle, 756 F.2d at 282; Aetna Casualty and Surety Co. v. Home Ins. Co., 882 F.Supp. 1355, 1357 (S.D.N.Y.1995); IBM Credit Corp. v. United Home for Aged Hebrews, 848 F.Supp. 495, 496 (S.D.N.Y.1994)).

In applying this standard, however, the courts draw a sharp distinction between those judgments that may be appealed as of right, and those that are final. The Supreme Court explained in U.S. Bancorp that the rule favoring vacatur of non-final judgments accommodates the litigant “who seeks review of the merits of an adverse ruling, but is frustrated by the vagaries of circumstance, [and] ought not in fairness be forced to acquiesce in the judgment.” 513 U.S. at 25, 115 S.Ct. 386. Following the Supreme Court’s holding in U.S. Bancorp, the Second Circuit has specifically refused to vacate “judgments as to which there is no right of review.” Yanakas, 11 F.3d at 385. In the case at bar, as in Yanakas, there is “no party [who] may obtain further review as a matter of right,” id. at 384, because defendant withdrew his appeal months ago, and the time for appeal has long since expired. In short, no party to this action is in the situation described by the Supreme Court in U.S. Bancorp: that is, torn between a practical interest in settlement and the need to challenge an unfavorable judgment on appeal.

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Bluebook (online)
193 F.R.D. 197, 2000 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6885, 2000 WL 640639, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/barry-v-atkinson-nysd-2000.