Setting aside an Oregon judgment: ORCP 71, one year, and a pleading you must attach

Oregon's relief-from-judgment rule follows the federal five-ground pattern with one requirement the federal rule doesn't impose: for the most commonly used grounds, you have to file your defense with the motion.

The five grounds

ORCP 71 B(1): on motion and upon such terms as are just, the court may relieve a party or the party's legal representative from a judgment for:

(a) mistake, inadvertence, surprise, or excusable neglect; (b) newly discovered evidence which by due diligence could not have been discovered in time to move for a new trial under Rule 64 F; (c) fraud (whether previously called intrinsic or extrinsic), misrepresentation, or other misconduct of an adverse party; (d) the judgment is void; or (e) 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.

Five grounds — the federal six minus the residual "any other reason justifying relief." Oregon has no catch-all in ORCP 71 B(1), which makes selecting the right enumerated ground more consequential here than under FRCP 60(b) or Washington's eleven-ground CR 60(b).

You must attach a pleading

The requirement that distinguishes ORCP 71:

A motion for reasons (a), (b), and (c) shall be accompanied by a pleading or motion under Rule 21 A which contains an assertion of a claim or defense.

A motion asserting excusable neglect, newly discovered evidence or fraud must arrive with the pleading you would file if relief were granted — or with an ORCP 21 A motion raising one of the nine defenses that rule allows.

That mirrors California's CCP 473(b) requirement ("otherwise the application shall not be granted") and Pennsylvania's Rule 237.3(a), and it is a common reason motions fail on the papers.

Grounds (d) and (e) — void judgment, and satisfied or no longer equitable — do not carry the attachment requirement, which makes sense: neither depends on having a defense to assert.

The timing

The motion shall be made within a reasonable time, and for reasons (a), (b), and (c) not [more than one year after the judgment was entered].

Both limits apply to the first three grounds. Grounds (d) and (e) carry only the reasonable-time requirement.

That is the same architecture as the federal rule, Ohio's Civ.R. 60(B) and Massachusetts's Rule 60(b) — and unlike Arizona, which caps the equivalent grounds at six months, or Washington, which excludes fraud from its one-year cap.

Clerical mistakes — ORCP 71 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 on its own motion or on the motion of any party and after such notice to all parties who have appeared, if any, as the court orders."

During the pendency of an appeal a judgment may be corrected as ORCP 71 B(2) provides.

As everywhere, ORCP 71 A makes the record say what the court did; it does not change what the court decided.

Where default fits

Oregon reaches default differently from most systems. ORCP 69 A(1) requires the party seeking relief to apply for an order of default and a judgment by default by filing motions and affidavits or declarations — there is no clerk's entry of default of the sort FRCP 55(a) provides.

Because the trigger is a failure "to appear by filing a motion or answer, or otherwise to defend," a timely ORCP 21 motion forecloses default while it is pending.

ORCP 69 also governs notice to a party who has appeared, and the relief available before judgment. The practical consequence is the same as elsewhere: undoing a default is far easier before judgment than after, so the first question is what has actually been entered.

Other routes

ORCP 71 C preserves the court's inherent power: the rule "does not limit the inherent power of a court to modify a judgment within a reasonable time, or the power of a court to entertain an independent action to relieve a party from a judgment, or the power of a court to grant relief to a defendant under Rule 7 D(6) [service by publication], or the power of a court to set aside a judgment for fraud upon the court."

Four preserved powers, none of them bounded by the one year. The service-by-publication route in particular matters for a defendant who never had actual notice.

How Oregon compares

A short checklist

1. Establish what was entered — an order of default, or a judgment. The earlier you are, the easier.
2. Attach the pleading. For grounds (a), (b) and (c), ORCP 71 B(1) requires a pleading or ORCP 21 A motion asserting a claim or defense.
3. Calendar one year for those three grounds, and remember reasonable time applies to all five.
4. Pick a ground that exists. There is no residual "any other reason" in ORCP 71 B(1).
5. If service was by publication, ORCP 71 C preserves the Rule 7 D(6) route outside the one year.
6. Ask for a stay separately if enforcement is under way.

Where these rules live

• ORCP 7 — Summons
• ORCP 21 — Defenses and Objections
• ORCP 23 — Amended and Supplemental Pleadings
• ORCP 47 — Summary Judgment
• ORCP 69 — Default
• ORCP 71 — Relief from Judgment or Order

The Oregon Judicial Department publishes court information at courts.oregon.gov. 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.