William A. Crowe, Trading as William A. Crowe Company v. Ragnar Benson, Inc ( 1962 )

KALODNER, Circuit Judge.

This is an appeal by the plaintiff, William A. Crowe, Trading as William A. Crowe Company, from an Order of the District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, vacating a default judgment in his favor in the amount of $35,-603.37 against the defendant, Ragnar Benson, Inc., in a suit to recover for services performed under a contract between plaintiff and defendant in connection with the cosntruction of the Gateway Park Garage, Gateway Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

The complaint in this suit was filed on June 6, 1960. There followed a telephone conversation and an exchange of letters between plaintiff’s counsel and defendant’s counsel in which the former agreed to consent to a reasonable extension of time for the filing of an answer. Defendant’s counsel was to prepare the necessary order for submission to the Court. The proposed order was never prepared. On December 29, 1960, the Clerk of the Court directly notified defendant by letter that the case would be called for trial in January or February, 1961. During this period defendant’s counsel was unable to devote full attention to his practice because of serious illnesses of his mother and his wife. On February 13, 1961, no appearance having been entered by counsel for defendant and no answer having been filed, the Clerk of the Court entered judgment by default pursuant to plaintiff’s application to do so. On September 8, 1961, following the issuance of a writ of execution on August 31 and the commencement of garnishment proceedings against defendant’s bank accounts, defendant’s counsel filed a motion to vacate the default judgment under Rule 60(b), Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, 28 U.S. C.A., and to stay the garnishment proceedings.

On September 13, following hearing had on the previous day, the District Court entered an Order granting defendant’s motion to vacate the default judgment and terminating the garnishment proceedings conditioned upon defendant’s payment to plaintiff’s counsel of the sum of $750.00 within 24 hours. The Order further directed defendant to file an answer to plaintiff’s complaint by September 18 and fixed November 13 for a pretrial conference.

On September 13 defendant’s counsel sent his check for $750.00 to plaintiff’s counsel. On September 14 plaintiff’s counsel advised the Clerk of the District Court of his receipt of the aforementioned check.¹ On September 18, the Clerk, pursuant to the terms of the District Court’s Order, vacated the default judgment entered February 13,1961. On September 26 plaintiff appealed. Subsequently, on November 13, the District, Court entered an Order postponing until after disposition of plaintiff’s appeal the pre-trial conference earlier fixed for that day. In this Order, the District Court stated that defendant’s motion under Rule 60(b) had been granted “for the reason that the Court was of the view that since negotiations had previously been conducted by counsel for the parties' and since counsel on behalf of the plaintiff knew of the identity of defendant’s counsel and nevertheless proceeded to secure default judgment without apprising a fellow member of the bar of said fact or failing to have notice given to him through the United States Clerk of Courts, it was my judgment that the interests of justice required that said default judgment be lifted.”

On this appeal plaintiff contends that the District Court (1) abused its discretion in vacating the default judgment and (2) acted arbitrarily in denying plaintiff an opportunity to answer defendant’s motion under oath ² and in failing to comply with its Local Rule providing that a motion filed on or before the third Wednesday of the month was to be heard by the miscellaneous judge during the following month.

In reply, defendant says that the District Court’s Order vacating the default judgment is interlocutory and therefore not appealable. It further urges that the District Court did not abuse its discretion or act arbitrarily and that the Local Rule relied on by plaintiff was not applicable in view of the emergency situation created by the garnishment proceedings.

At the outset, it should be noted that plaintiff does not contend that the District Court acted beyond its jurisdiction in vacating the default judgment as was the case in Demeretz v. Daniels Motor Freight, Inc., 307 F.2d 469 (3d Cir. 1962). Plaintiff asserts only that there was an abuse of discretion and certain procedural irregularities. With respect to these contentions, we need only say that we do not reach them since the Order of the District Court vacating the default judgment is a nonappealable interlocutory order, and accordingly we are without jurisdiction to entertain this appeal. United States v. Agne, 161 F.2d 331 (3d Cir. 1947) .³

Plaintiff requests that we treat the appeal as a petition for writ of mandamus or prohibition if we consider the Order nonappealable. Assuming, arguendo, that an appeal may be so treated, we are of the opinion that the use of the writ is inappropriate here. It is settled that “the extraordinary writs cannot be used as substitutes for appeals * * Bankers Life & Casualty Co. v. Holland, 346 U.S. 379, 383, 74 S.Ct. 145, 98 L.Ed. 106 (1953). There are no “exceptional circumstances” here which would justify the issuance of the writ. LaBuy v. Howes Leather Co., 352 U.S. 249, 256, 260, 77 S.Ct. 309, 1 L.Ed.2d 290 (1957); Green v. Murphy, 259 F.2d 591, 594 (3d Cir. 1958).

For the reasons stated the appeal will be dismissed.

1 . It is agreed by the parties that plaintiff’s counsel was still in possession of the $750.00 check when the instant appeal was filed on September 26, 1961; that the check was not returned by plaintiff’s counsel to defendant’s counsel until December 1, 1961.

2 . Defendant’s motion set forth the circumstances pertaining to the failure to enter an appearance and file an answer and was accompanied by an affidavit by defendant’s counsel that the facts as stated were true. At the hearing before the District Court, plaintiff’s counsel was afforded an opportunity to explain the circumstances surrounding the securing of the default judgment. The trial judge stated that he would treat counsel’s explanation, although unsworn, as having been made under oath, inasmuch as counsel was an officer of the Court.

3 . We cannot subscribe to the view expressed in the dissenting opinion that the Order vacating the default judgment is appealable under Tozer v. Charles A. Krause Milling Co., 189 F.2d 242 (3d Cir. 1951). In that case the District Court dismissed a motion by the defendant to set aside a default judgment and the appealability of tbe District Court’s action was not at issue since it was a “final decision” in that it terminated further proceedings. In the instant case the order vacating the default judgment was interlocutory inasmuch as it contemplated further proceedings in the lower court.