Brandt, et al. v. American Bankers Ins. Co., No. 10-35764 (9th Cir. 2011)
Annotate this CasePlaintiffs appealed the district court's order granting American Bankers Insurance Company's (American Bankers) motion to set aside default judgment for excusable neglect under Fed. R. Civ. P. 60(b)(1). Plaintiffs argued that once the district court concluded that American Bankers acted culpably in failing to respond to the complaint, it was precluded as a matter of law from setting aside the default judgment. The court found that a district court could exercise its discretion to deny relief to a defaulting defendant based solely upon a finding of defendant's culpability, but it need not do so. The court concluded that the district court's finding that American Bankers acted culpably did not preclude it, as a matter of law, from setting aside the default judgment under Rule 60(b)(1) based upon excusable neglect. Therefore, the court held that the district court applied the correct legal standard and that it did not abuse its discretion.
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