Rule 60. Relief from judgment or order. - North Carolina Statutes

Rule 60. Relief from judgmentor order.

(a)        Clerical mistakes.– Clerical mistakes in judgments, orders or other parts of the record anderrors therein arising from oversight or omission may be corrected by the judgeat any time on his own initiative or on the motion of any party and after suchnotice, if any, as the judge orders. During the pendency of an appeal, suchmistakes may be so corrected before the appeal is docketed in the appellatedivision, and thereafter while the appeal is pending may be so corrected withleave of the appellate division.

(b)        Mistakes;inadvertence; excusable neglect; newly discovered evidence; fraud, etc. – Onmotion and upon such terms as are just, the court may relieve a party or hislegal representative from a final judgment, order, or proceeding for thefollowing reasons:

(1)        Mistake,inadvertence, surprise, or excusable neglect;

(2)        Newly discoveredevidence which by due diligence could not have been discovered in time to movefor a new trial under Rule 59(b);

(3)        Fraud (whetherheretofore denominated intrinsic or extrinsic), misrepresentation, or othermisconduct of an adverse party;

(4)        The judgment isvoid;

(5)        The judgment hasbeen satisfied, released, or discharged, or  a prior judgment upon which it isbased has been reversed or otherwise vacated, or it is no longer equitable thatthe judgment should have prospective application; or

(6)        Any other reasonjustifying relief from the operation of the  judgment.

The motion shall be made within areasonable time, and for reasons (1), (2) and (3) not more than one year afterthe judgment, order, or  proceeding was entered or taken. A motion under thissection does not affect the finality of a judgment or suspend its operation.This rule does not limit the power of a court to entertain an independentaction to relieve a party from a judgment, order, or proceeding, or to setaside a judgment for fraud upon the court. The procedure for obtaining anyrelief from a judgment, order, or proceeding shall be by motion as prescribedin these rules or by an independent action.

(c)        Judgments renderedby the clerk. – The clerk may, in respect of judgments rendered by himself,exercise the same powers authorized in sections (a) and (b). The judge has likepowers in respect of such judgments. Where such powers are exercised by theclerk, appeals may be had to the judge in the manner provided by law.  (1967,c. 954, s. 1.)