Seabreeze Homeowners Association, Inc. v. Marshall Jenney

Opinion

SAM GLASSCOCK 11] COURT OF CHANCERY COURTHOUSE

VICE CHANCELLOR 34 THE CIRCLE GEORGETOWN, DELAWARE 19947

Petitioner in the amount of $3,750.00. Inadvertently, I signed a form of order provided by Petitioner’s counsel that imposed that order as a judgment against both Marshall Jenney and his wife, Erin C. Jenney, also a party Respondent. Mrs... J enney became a party after a sham transfer of the real property at issue from Mr... J enney to Mrs. Jenney. I found that that transfer was in contempt of this Court’s attempt to enforce a settlement that was entered as a Court Order. Because Mrs.i J enney participated, at least passively, in the sham transaction, Petitioner’s counsel assumed that she should be a part of the order awarding attorneys’ fees, and drafted a form of order accordingly. However, I have made no finding of vexatious litigation against Mrs. J enney, and, in my haste to trim this litigation to its perhaps— indestructible root, I signed the July 22 Order without sufficient consideration. In sum, the Order assessing fees as a judgment against both J enneys was error on my part. Therefore, I have vacated the July 22 Order. It is void and of no effect. I have attached a substitute Order imposing the fees in question as a judgment against Marshall J enney, solely,

I note that this matter came before me on the J enneys’ Motion under Rules 59(e) and (f) to alter or amend the July 22 Order. That speaking Motion generated an Answering Memorandum and a Reply. In the context of everyday litigation— as opposed to salt-the-earth, kill-and-be-killed litigation of the kind now before

me—the matter of whether the Order in question contained an error would have

m