United States v. $55,518.05 in U.S. Currency. Appeal of Gary Golden

I disagree with the majority opinion’s analysis and the conclusion which it reaches. In my opinion, the majority, while acknowledging this court’s precedents, has failed to apply the standard we have adopted in cases involving default judgments. In doing so, it has departed from and violated our longstanding policy of preventing disputes from being prematurely ended without being resolved on the merits.

I

In determining whether the district court abused its discretion in refusing to reopen a default judgment, we must keep in mind the operative premise: “[T]his court does not favor defaults and…