Winslow v. Williams Group (In re Winslow)

132 B.R. 1016, 1991 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14801
CourtDistrict Court, D. Colorado
DecidedOctober 10, 1991
DocketCiv. A. Nos. 89-K-1811, 90-K-663; Bankruptcy No. 89-B-247-E
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 132 B.R. 1016 (Winslow v. Williams Group (In re Winslow)) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Colorado primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Winslow v. Williams Group (In re Winslow), 132 B.R. 1016, 1991 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14801 (D. Colo. 1991).

Opinion

ORDER DENYING MOTION FOR RULE 60(B) RELIEF AND LIMITING THE FILING OF MOTIONS FOR RECONSIDERATION

KANE, Senior District Judge.

On September 16,1991, Rainsford J. and Winifred W. Winslow filed a “Verified Motion to Prevent Morgan County/Williams Class from Getting a Million Dollar Reward after Committing Two Serious Fraudulent Federal Felonies as per Title 18 USC §§ 152 and 1001 which is Projected to be the Biggest and Most Infamous Crime in the History of Morgan County.” The Winslows allege:

(1) in 1980, attorney Stanley Rosener committed a criminal act by tapping into the Winslows’ privately owned sewer system without permission;
(2) in June, July and September 1989, Morgan County and the Williams Group, two creditors of the Winslow bankruptcy estate, filed false proofs of claims by concealing that they had not revived the state court judgments upon which their claims were based;
(3) the attorneys representing Morgan County and the Williams Group, the bankruptcy trustee and her counsel, and the U.S. Trustee participated in the concealment of the falsity of the claims;
(4) Judge Matheson, presiding in the Winslows’ bankruptcy case, approved the Morgan County and Williams Group claims as secured;
(5) the Winslows did not get a fair trial before an impartial judge in the state court action which resulted in the judgments in favor of Morgan County and the Williams Group; and
(6) two of the three state court judges hearing an appeal related to the state [1018]*1018court judgments were improperly appointed.

(See Motion at 2-3).

The motion requests relief under Rule 60(b)(3) and (4), from final judgments entered in Civil Action Nos. 89-K-1811 and 90-K-633 on May 8, 1990 and February 5, 1991, respectively. The Winslows have further appealed both judgments. On June 7,1991, the Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit entered an order and judgment affirming this court’s ruling in No. 89-K-1811. See Winslow v. Williams Group (In re Winslow), 935 F.2d 278 (10th Cir.1991). The appeal of No. 90-K-663 is still pending. See Winslow v. Morgan County (In re Winslow), No. 91-1047 (notice of appeal filed Feb. 5, 1991).

This motion demonstrates the Winslows’ litigiousness, disorganization and repeated disregard for the authority of this court. This is now the fifth motion seeking extraordinary postjudgment relief that the Winslows have filed in connection with No. 89-K-1811.1 In an order entered on February 15, 1991, I denied the preceding two motions, explaining that they were procedurally improper in the context of a bankruptcy appeal. (Order on Rule 59(e) and Rule 60(b) Mots, and Mot. for Subs, of Counsel at 1-2.) In addition, I noted that “[i]f ... the Debtors are seeking to have the state court judgments against them altered through these motions, this court has no jurisdiction to do so.... ” (Order on Rule 59(e) and Rule 60(b) Mots, at 2.) Again the Winslows raise the validity of these state court judgments, as well as other matters extraneous to both cases.

Similarly, in connection with No. 90-K-663, I denied the Winslows’ Motion for Relief from Judgment under Rule 60(b), filed August 23, 1990, advising them that such relief must be sought from the bankruptcy court. See In re Winslow, 121 B.R. 598, 600 (D.Colo.1990). In that order, and in response to several parties’ request for sanctions due to the Winslows’ repeated attempts to raise issues not germane to the appeal, I noted that the Winslows, as pro se parties, were subject to the strictures of Rule 11. Id. at 600. In addition, I stated, “[t]he Debtors are hereby advised that the only matters at issue in this case concern the bankruptcy court’s March 30, 1990 order converting their case from Chapter 11 to Chapter 7 and that, in the future, the filing of pleadings concerning other matters not at issue will subject them to sanctions.” Id.

This court has exercised considerable patience with the Winslows’ hypergraphia. They apparently believe that a case, including one long resolved by a final order of the court, can simply be reopened by filing a pleading containing the terminated case number, though the matters raised are clearly outside of the scope of the case. A lawsuit does not rise like a phoenix from the ashes. Once resolved on its merits, a case will be reopened and extraordinary postjudgment relief granted only on a strong showing of good cause. See Bud Brooks Trucking, Inc. v. Bill Hodges Trucking Co., 909 F.2d 1437, 1440 (10th Cir.1990) (relief from judgment under Rule 60(b) “is extraordinary and may only be granted in exceptional circumstances”). Simple persistence, as demonstrated here, in the filing of repetitious motions for reconsideration and postjudgment relief does not constitute good cause.

Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure requires that “[ejvery pleading, motion, or other paper” shall be signed by a party or a party’s attorney. That signature

constitutes a certificate by the signer that the signer has read the pleading, motion or other paper; that to the best of the signer’s knowledge, information, and belief formed after reasonable inquiry it is well grounded in fact and is warranted by existing law or a good faith argument for the extension, modifi[1019]*1019cation, or reversal of existing law, and that it is not interposed for any improper purpose, such as to harass or cause unnecessary delay or needless increase in the cost of litigation.

Fed.R.Civ.P. 11. “ ‘The certification requirement now mandates that all signers consider their behavior in terms of the duty they owe to the court system to conserve its resources and avoid unnecessary proceedings.’ ” Business Guides, Inc. v. Chromatic Communications Enters., Inc., — U.S. In re Winslow, 111 S.Ct. 922, 929, 112 L.Ed.2d 1140 (1991) (citing 5A C. Wright & A. Miller, Federal Practice & Procedure § 1331 at 21 (1990)).

Rule 11 applies to persons representing themselves pro se as well as persons represented by attorneys. See Eisenberg v. University of N.M., 936 F.2d 1131, 1134 (10th Cir.1991). While pro se pleadings are held to less stringent standards than those drafted by attorneys, see Meade v. Grubbs, 841 F.2d 1512, 1526 (10th Cir.1988), pro se status does not confer a license to “ ‘harass others, clog the judicial machinery with meritless litigation, and abuse already overloaded court dockets.’ ” Patterson v. Aiken, 841 F.2d 386

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
132 B.R. 1016, 1991 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14801, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/winslow-v-williams-group-in-re-winslow-cod-1991.