04-26-11
This action, which concerned disputes about plaintiffs' sale of certain rental properties to defendants, was settled and dismissed on June 8, 2009. The parties' settlement agreement provided for the execution of new contracts within three days and a closing no later September 15, 2009, after which -- if the closing did not occur -- the parties would have no further obligations. The parties failed to agree on the form and content of new contracts, and plaintiffs sold the properties to others.
Defendants filed a motion for relief, pursuant to Rule 4:50-1, on June 7, 2010, one day short of a year from the order in question. The trial judge denied the motion and the court affirmed, concluding among other things that the motion was untimely. In affirming, the court emphasized that Rule 4:50-2 requires that all motions for relief pursuant to Rule 4:50-1 must be filed within "a reasonable time." Rule 4:50-2's declaration that motions based on subsections (a), (b), or (c) of Rule 4:50-1 may not be filed more than one year from the order in question represents only an outer limit; such motions must still be filed within "a reasonable time," which may be less than one year.
