Roberts v. Moffa Construction Company, LLC

Summary

The Delaware Superior Court denied Wanda Roberts’s motion under Superior Court Civil Rule 60(a) and 60(b)(1) to correct or reopen a judgment arising from a construction dispute. The court held that Roberts’s alleged mathematical errors required relitigation of factual findings and damages determinations, rather than correction of a clerical mistake or relief based on extraordinary circumstances.

Holdings

1. Rule 60(a) permits correction of a judgment only to make it accurately reflect what the court actually decided; it does not permit a party to change the substance of the decision, revisit evidentiary rulings, reweigh proof, or relitigate factual findings. Roberts identified no clerical, copying, or computational mistake within the rule's scope.
2. Roberts was not entitled to relief under Rule 60(b)(1) because she did not demonstrate mistake, inadvertence, surprise, excusable neglect, or extraordinary circumstances supporting the extraordinary remedy of Rule 60(b) relief.

Questions Presented

1. Whether Superior Court Civil Rule 60(a) permitted correction of the judgment based on Roberts's alleged mathematical errors and challenges to the court's factual findings and damages calculation.
2. Whether Roberts was entitled to relief under Superior Court Civil Rule 60(b)(1) based on mistake, inadvertence, surprise, or excusable neglect.

Disposition

denied