Eppley v. Sahr, Unpublished Decision (12-13-2000)
Eppley v. Sahr, Unpublished Decision (12-13-2000)
Opinion of the Court
Appellant Mark Sahr appeals the decision of the Licking County Municipal Court, which denied his motion for relief from judgment. The relevant facts leading to this appeal are as follows. On October 19, 1999, Appellee Jenny Eppley filed a small claims action in the Licking County Municipal Court, alleging that appellant, her former boyfriend, owed her the sum of $2476.94 for unpaid rent, car payments, and charges on a Sears credit card. Appellee's claim was set for hearing on January 20, 2000. Appellant failed to appear, and the court entered judgment for appellee. Appellant quickly thereafter sent a pro se letter to the court, stating that adverse weather conditions had prevented his appearance. The court accepted his excuse, and reset the matter for March 2, 2000. For reasons not clear in the record, the court again reset the hearing for March 21, 2000. However, appellant purportedly misplaced the notice of hearing, and again failed to appear. The trial court then entered a default judgment against appellant on March 24, 2000. Appellee thereafter initiated garnish proceedings. Appellant wisely decided at that point to seek the advice of legal counsel. He obtained an attorney, and with his assistance filed a motion for relief from judgment pursuant to Civ.R. 60(B)(1) through (5) on May 22, 2000. Nonetheless, the trial court entered a judgment entry on June 1, 2000, denying appellant's motion for relief from judgment. Appellant timely appealed, and herein raises the following sole Assignment of Error:
I. THE TRIAL COURT ERRED IN ENTERING A DEFAULT JUDGMENT AGAINST DEFENDANT-APPELLANT, THEN DENYING DEFENDANT-APPELLANT'S MOTION FOR RELIEF FROM THAT DEFAULT JUDGMENT.
We first address appellant's challenge to the March 24, 2000 default judgment. The Ohio Supreme Court has made clear that a "[m]otion for relief from judgment cannot be used as substitute for timely appeal or as means to extend time for perfecting appeal from original judgment." Key v. Mitchell (1998),
State ex rel. Durkin v. Ungaro (1988),
Appellant did not timely appeal the original default judgment. Hence, our review must be focused instead on the trial court's June 1, 2000 denial of relief from said judgment. Generally, a grant or denial of a genuine Civ.R. 60(B) motion is a final appealable order. Consolidated Rail Corp. v. Forest Cartage Co. (1990),
The crux of our analysis is therefore whether appellant's brief reasonably appears to sustain that he "is entitled to relief under one of the grounds stated in Civ.R. 60(B)(1) through (5)." GTE, supra. He seeks initially to rely on the "excusable neglect" grounds of Civ.R. 60(B)(1), asserting that he inadvertently misplaced the notice of the hearing date and date. However, such calendar-related errors are frequently met with disdain by reviewing courts, as in the following example from the Franklin County Court of Appeals: On February 10, 1995, appellee filed a motion for relief from judgment claiming the original attorney had been hospitalized on the trial date and his office failed to continue the trial. * * *.
Pool Man, Inc. v. Rea (Oct. 17, 1995), Franklin App. No. 95APG04-438, unreported, at 7.
More compelling is appellant's claim that appellee's suit is legally blocked by appellant's discharge pursuant to Section 727, Title 11, U.S. Code, in the United States Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of Ohio. A copy of the discharge order, dated July 28, 1999, is attached to his motion for relief from judgment. Without the necessity of definitively ruling on the validity of appellant's discharge claim, we find appellant has presented us with sufficient documentation from the record regarding his potential Chapter 7 defense to reasonably support a rehearing of this lawsuit pursuant to Civ.R. 60(B)(4). Under the circumstances of this case, and in the absence of any response by appellee, appellants' brief reasonably appears to sustain reversal of the trial court's entry denying relief from judgment. See, e.g., Lewis v. William Cundiff and Pizza Rack, Inc. (Jan. 19, 1993), Stark App. No. CA-9012, unreported. Appellant's contention that the trial court erred in denying his motion for relief from judgment is well-taken. Appellant's sole Assignment of Error is sustained.
For the reasons stated in the foregoing opinion, the judgment of the Municipal Court of Licking, County, Ohio, is hereby reversed. The trial court's judgment entry of June 1, 2000, denying appellant's Civ.R. 60(B) motion is hereby vacated, and the matter is thus remanded for further hearing on the issues raised in appellee's original small claims complaint of October 19, 1999, and the validity of any defenses thereto.
_____________ Wise, J.
Gwin, P.J., and Farmer, J., concur.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.