United States Ninth Circuit

An order denying beneficiaries of plaintiff's estate modification under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b)(6) of a 1985 judgment on a breach of employment contract claim against a now-abolished commission is affirmed where the district court did not abuse its discretion in denying relief as Rule 60(b)(6) cannot be used to assert a new and distinct legal claim against a defendant that was not party to the original judgment.

Appellate Information

• Decided 01/11/2007
• Published 01/11/2007

Judges

• GOULD, Circuit Judge., Before SILVERMAN and GOULD, Circuit Judges, and JOHN S. RHOADES, District Judge.

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• J. William Bennett, Cannon Beach, OR, for plaintiff-appellant William H. Delay and Delay Beneficiaries.


• For Appellees:
  
• Isaac J. Lidsky, Attorney, Appellate Staff, Office of the Attorney General, Washington, D.C., for defendants-appellees Mel Gordon, Chairman, and Pacific Northwest River Basins Commission, and for the United States.