Setting aside an Alaska judgment: one year from notice, not from entry — and bring a proposed judgment

Alaska's relief-from-judgment rule tracks the federal six-ground structure, and then differs in two places that decide whether a motion is timely and whether it is complete.

The one-year clock runs from notice, not from entry. And a motion to amend or correct must arrive with a proposed judgment and a separate proposed order.

The six grounds

Rule 60(b): on motion and upon such terms as are just, the court may relieve a party or a party's legal representative from a final judgment, order, or proceeding for:

(1) mistake, inadvertence, surprise or excusable neglect; (2) newly discovered evidence which by due diligence could not have been discovered in time to move for a new trial under Rule 59(b); (3) fraud (whether heretofore denominated intrinsic or extrinsic), misrepresentation, or other misconduct of an adverse party; (4) the judgment is void; (5) the judgment has been satisfied, released, or discharged, or a prior judgment upon which it is based has been reversed or otherwise vacated, or it is no longer equitable that the judgment should have prospective application; or (6) any other reason justifying relief from the operation of the judgment.

Six, including the catch-all in (6). That puts Alaska with the federal rule and Massachusetts, and apart from Oregon — whose ORCP 71 B(1) has five grounds and no residual clause — and Washington, whose CR 60(b) lists eleven.

Ground (6) is not a way around the others. It is available for reasons the enumerated grounds do not reach, and a motion that is really a late (1) does not become a (6) by being labelled one.

The clock runs from notice

The motion shall be made within a reasonable time, and for reasons (1), (2) and (3) not more than one year after the date of notice of the judgment or orders as defined in Civil Rule 58.1(c).

Two limits, and the second applies only to the first three grounds.

Every ground carries the reasonable-time requirement, including (4), (5) and (6). A void-judgment motion brought after years of silence still has to be reasonable.

And the one year runs from the date of notice. Federal Rule 60(c)(1) runs its year from entry of the judgment; so do Oregon's ORCP 71 B(1) and Washington's CR 60(b). Alaska runs it from the date of notice as defined in Rule 58.1(c).

That will usually be later than entry, and sometimes considerably later. It matters most for a defendant who learns of a judgment long after it was entered — exactly the situation ground (1) and ground (4) exist for.

A Rule 60(b) motion does not stay anything. The rule says so: it "does not affect the finality of a judgment or suspend its operation." If enforcement is under way, ask for a stay separately.

What the rule preserves

The same subsection keeps four things alive outside its structure:

This rule does not limit the power of a court to entertain an independent action to relieve a party from a judgment, order or proceeding, or to grant relief to a defendant not personally served, or to set aside a judgment for fraud upon the court.

Writs are abolished — coram nobis, coram vobis and audita querela — "and the procedure for obtaining any relief from a judgment shall be by motion as prescribed in these rules or by an independent action."

The "defendant not personally served" clause is the one to remember. A defendant who never had personal service is not confined to the one year on grounds (1) through (3).

Clerical mistakes — Rule 60(a)

Clerical mistakes in judgments, orders or other parts of the record, and errors arising from oversight or omission, "may be corrected by the court at any time of its own initiative or on the motion of any party and after such notice, if any, as the court orders."

During an appeal or petition for review, such mistakes may be corrected before the record is filed in the Supreme Court, "and thereafter may be so corrected with leave of the Supreme Court."

And the record includes the docket: "For purposes of this rule, the record includes electronic information maintained about the case."

Rule 60(a) makes the record say what the court did. It does not change what the court decided — that is Rule 60(b) work.

Rule 60(c): what a motion to amend must contain

A motion to amend or correct a judgment must be accompanied by a proposed amended or corrected judgment and a separate proposed order. The new judgment must include the word "amended" or "corrected" in the title.

Three requirements, all mechanical, all easy to miss:

1. a proposed amended or corrected judgment;
2. a separate proposed order — two documents, not one; and
3. the word "amended" or "corrected" in the title of the new judgment.

That fits the Alaska pattern seen elsewhere in these rules. Rule 12(b) and Rule 56(c) require a separate proposed final judgment within 20 days of a decision granting dismissal or summary judgment, and Rule 58 requires every judgment to be "set forth on a separate document distinct from any findings of fact, conclusions of law, opinion, or memorandum."

Alaska keeps decisions and judgments as separate documents throughout, and the party who wins is generally the one who drafts the judgment.

Where default fits

Rule 55(e): "For good cause shown the court may set aside an entry of default and, if a default judgment has been entered, may likewise set it aside in accordance with Rule 60(b)."

The two-tier structure, and in Alaska the first tier is unusually easy to stay in. Rule 55(a)(1) requires the party seeking default to serve the application on everyone, including the party about to be defaulted; Rule 55(a)(2) makes the clerk wait not less than seven days; and Rule 55(d) provides that "a party may respond to any pleading at any time before a default is entered."

So a defendant who receives a default application and simply answers inside those seven days needs no motion and no good cause. The guide on responding to an Alaska complaint covers that sequence.

Rule 59, and choosing between them

Rule 60(b)(2) refers to evidence that could not have been discovered "in time to move for a new trial under Rule 59(b)." That cross-reference is the dividing line between the two motions.

Inside the Rule 59(b) period, a new trial motion is the vehicle for newly discovered evidence and for error at trial.

Outside it, Rule 60(b) is the route — and for newly discovered evidence, only where due diligence could not have surfaced it in time.

A Rule 60(b) motion is not a substitute for a new trial motion you did not file, and it is not an appeal.

The judgment-entry sequence

Because Alaska separates decisions from judgments, knowing when the clock starts requires knowing when the judgment exists.

Rule 58 directs entry: on a general verdict, or a decision that a party recover only a sum certain or costs or that all relief be denied, "the court or the clerk, upon direction of the court, shall forthwith enter the judgment"; on a decision granting other relief, or a special verdict, "the court shall promptly enter judgment."

Every judgment must be set forth on a separate document distinct from any findings of fact, conclusions of law, opinion, or memorandum. Entry of the judgment shall not be delayed, nor the time for appeal extended, for the taxing of costs or the award of fees.

That last sentence matters for planning. Costs under Rule 79 and fees under Rule 82 are resolved after the judgment and do not hold up entry or the appeal clock — while their own deadlines (10 days from the clerk's certificate of distribution, for both) run from it.

A short checklist

1. Find the date of notice, not the date of entry. The one year on grounds (1), (2) and (3) runs from notice as Rule 58.1(c) defines it.
2. Move within a reasonable time regardless of ground. That requirement applies to all six.
3. Pick a ground that fits. Ground (6) is residual, not a second chance at ground (1).
4. If you were never personally served, say so — the rule preserves the court's power to grant you relief outside the ordinary structure.
5. Ask for a stay separately. A Rule 60(b) motion does not suspend the judgment.
6. Attach a proposed amended or corrected judgment and a separate proposed order, with "amended" or "corrected" in the title.
7. If it is a clerical error, use Rule 60(a) — no time limit, and available on the court's own motion.
8. If a default application has arrived and nothing is entered yet, just answer. Seven days, no motion, no good cause.
9. If a default judgment is already entered, you are in Rule 60(b), with everything above.

How Alaska compares

Where these rules live

• Alaska R. Civ. P. 12 — Defenses and objections
• Alaska R. Civ. P. 55 — Default
• Alaska R. Civ. P. 56 — Summary judgment
• Alaska R. Civ. P. 58 — Entry of judgment
• Alaska R. Civ. P. 59 — New trials; amendment of judgments
• Alaska R. Civ. P. 60 — Relief from judgment or order
• Alaska R. Civ. P. 79 — Costs; taxation and review
• Alaska R. Civ. P. 82 — Attorney's fees

This page explains what the rules say. It isn't legal advice, and what counts as excusable neglect is decided under case law this site doesn't cover.