Huntley v. State
Annotate this CaseIn Huntley I, the Supreme Court determined that a judgment entered in the federal district court for the defendants, including the State and the Office of the Attorney General, against Plaintiff Dawn Huntley was entitled to preclusive effect. Undaunted by the opinion in Huntley I, Plaintiff argued that her state court action was still viable because individual defendants Mr. Goulart, Mr. Coyne, and Mr. Lynch, had not pled or otherwise defended the civil action. Plaintiff and her attorney (together, Appellants) obtained default judgment against Mr. Goulart and filed similar applications for entry of default against Mr. Coyne and Mr. Lynch. A justice of the superior court vacated the default entered against Mr. Goulart and sustained Mr. Coyne’s and Mr. Lynch’s objections to the pending applications for entry of default against them. The hearing justice then sanctioned Appellants, ruling that the applications for default had not been filed in good faith. The Supreme Judicial Court affirmed, holding (1) Huntley I was clearly applicable to the individual defendants and Appellants had not standing to challenge the individual defendants’ representation by the Office of the Attorney General; and (2) there was no abuse of discretion in the hearing justice’s sanction.
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