Dear Lawyer, You're Fired!

[David A. Szwak]

Whitaker v. Associated Credit Services, Inc.
946 F.2d 1222
C.A.6 (Ky.),1991.
October 17, 1991

After plaintiffs accepted offer of judgment and judgment in accordance therewith was signed, defendant filed motion to set aside judgment of $500,000 and substitute in its place offer of judgment for $500. The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky, Henry R. Wilhoit, Jr., J., set aside the $500,000 judgment and substituted offer of judgment for $500. Plaintiffs appealed. The Court of Appeals, Milburn, Circuit Judge, held that: (1) federal civil rule authorizing correction of clerical mistakes and setting aside of judgment on basis of mistake, inadvertence, surprise, or excusable neglect and general principles of contract law provided basis for district court to exercise its discretion and equitable powers to provide defendant relief from $500,000 judgment entered in favor of plaintiffs pursuant to defendant's offer of judgment, where original offer of judgment was to be for $500, but was erroneously transmitted as $500,000 due to clerical error; (2) no meeting of minds and no valid offer and acceptance of offer of judgment constituting enforceable contract occurred; and (3) district court may exercise its equitable powers to set aside judgment under circumstances in which it would be unconscionable to enforce judgment.
Affirmed.

Before MARTIN and MILBURN, Circuit Judges; and JOINER, Senior District Judge FN* .


FN* Honorable Charles W. Joiner, Senior United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Michigan, sitting by designation.


MILBURN, Circuit Judge.
Plaintiffs-appellants Kenneth L. Whitaker and Linda C. Whitaker appeal from the district court's order entered February 21, 1991, setting aside a judgment entered pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 68 in favor of plaintiffs in the amount of $500,000, and substituting a corrected offer of judgment for $500 for the original $500,000 offer of judgment. The sole issue in this case is whether the district court abused its discretion in granting defendant Trans Union's motion to set aside the judgment of $500,000 entered pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 68. For the reasons that follow, we affirm.



I.

Plaintiffs Linda C. and Kenneth L. Whitaker, residents of Cynthiana, Kentucky, filed an action against Trans Union Corporation (“Trans Unionâ€