Default in Divorce
- If you Try……..
Divorce Default in Divorce What if You Negotiate / Get Ill / Appear?? |
In an Unpublished Decision "Block", it was held that the trial judge erred both in entering a judgment of divorce by default and in later refusing to vacate the default judgment.
It was alleged that the parties, to minimize costs, agreed to negotiate and that during the negotiations Defendant presented evidence that he suffered a myocardial infarction requiring hospitalization and provided a stipulation extending time to answer to his spouse and that Defendant had appeared at the Default Hearing. The Judge, nevertheless, entered Default Judgment!
SNIPPETS:
We need not discuss the matter at any great length. Our Court Rules are designed to promote the efficient administration of justice and the disposition of cases on their merits, not on procedural niceties. R. 1:1-2. As the Supreme Court has said, the Rules "should not in themselves be the source of any extensive litigation; they should be subordinated to their true role, i.e., simply a means to the end of obtaining just and expeditious determinations between the parties on the ultimate merits." Handelman v. Handelman, 17 N.J. 1, 10 (1954); see also Ragusa v. Lau, 119 N.J. 276, 283-84 (1990); Stone v. Old Bridge Twp., 111 N.J. 110, 125 (1988) (Clifford, J., dissenting).
. . .
When defendant responded with a desire to file an answer and litigate if necessary, the judge should have permitted it. The judge's decision reveals none of the liberality required by the rules in these circumstances and exalted form over substance.
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2/17/15