Butner v. Neustadter
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
324 F.2d 783 (1963)
R. Michael Butner (defendant), served with a California lawsuit while briefly visiting the state, forwarded the papers to his usual Arkansas attorney along with the name of a California attorney (Reisman) to potentially retain; Reisman's office, contacted near the end of the 10-day response deadline, requested an extension while Reisman himself was out of town, but plaintiff Ingrid Neustadter's (plaintiff) attorney had already obtained a default judgment and refused to set it aside. Butner timely removed the case to federal court after the state default and both answered the complaint (alleging the underlying note was fraudulently obtained) and moved to set aside the default judgment; the federal district court refused to set it aside, and Butner appealed.
Whether a state default judgment should be set aside by a federal court after the case is validly removed, where the defaulting party is not guilty of inexcusable neglect and there is doubt about the propriety of leaving the default intact.