§ 9-11-60.Relief from judgments

Subsection (a) draws the line between two kinds of challenges. A judgment void on its face can be attacked collaterally, in any court, by anyone. Every other judgment can be attacked only through a direct proceeding, using one of the methods this section prescribes. Subsection (b) narrows those methods to two: a motion for new trial or a motion to set aside, and both can be brought only in the court that rendered the judgment.

Subsections (c) and (d) separate the two methods by what they can reach. A motion for new trial has to rest on some intrinsic defect that doesn’t appear on the face of the record or pleadings — something the record itself doesn’t reveal. A motion to set aside, by contrast, targets defects the statute lists specifically: lack of jurisdiction over the person or subject matter; fraud, accident, or mistake, or the adverse party’s acts, so long as they’re unmixed with the movant’s own negligence or fault; or a nonamendable defect appearing on the face of the record or pleadings. That last ground has a real limit — it isn’t enough that the complaint or pleading fails to state a claim; the pleadings have to affirmatively show that no claim in fact existed. Subsection (e) closes off a route some litigants might otherwise try: a complaint in equity can’t be used to set aside a judgment.

Subsection (f) fixes the timing and procedure. Every motion gets reasonable notice to the parties, and a motion to set aside can be served the way an original complaint is served if ordinary motion service won’t reach the party. A judgment void for lack of jurisdiction can be attacked at any time, with no deadline. A motion for new trial has to meet whatever deadline the law otherwise prescribes for that motion. Every other motion to set aside has to be brought within three years of the judgment’s entry.

The final two subsections round the section out. Subsection (g) lets a court fix clerical mistakes in a judgment, order, or other part of the record at any time, on its own initiative or a party’s motion, after whatever notice the court orders. And subsection (h) abolishes the old law-of-the-case rule while keeping a general presumption against disturbing judgments and orders without just cause — the court has to weigh vested rights and any injury to innocent parties — except that a ruling by the Supreme Court of Georgia or the Court of Appeals in a case remains binding in every later proceeding in that same case.