We will hear argument first this morning in case 24808, Kony Island Auto Parts Unlimited versus Burton.

Mr. Ginsburg.

Thank you, Mr. Chief Justice, and may it please the Court.

Historically, judgments entered in the absence of personal jurisdiction have been described as a nullity,

utterly void upon entry, lacking any legal effect and odious to due process.

Accordingly, they have routinely been vacated without reference to any specific period of time or deadline,

and courts have noted that it is per se an abuse of discretion for a court not to vacate a void judgment.

In this action, the lower courts did not determine whether the judgment was void.

Rather,

they held that Coney Island took too long to bring its motion for vacatur in violation of rule of civil procedure 60C1, which requires such motions to be made within a reasonable time.

This court has never had occasion previously to consider whether Rule 60C1 applies to judgments

void ab initio or the

definition of reasonable time. We respectfully submit that the lower courts erred because, as a matter

of logic, Rule 60C1 cannot apply to judgments void ab initio. And the reason for that is that

if the judgment is void immediately upon entry and remain so for all time, there cannot

be a time after which the judgment cannot be vacated because a judgment that is void ab initio

cannot suddenly spring to life and become active and enforceable through the passage of time alone.

To harmonize the doctrine of void ab initio in a reasonable time, the Court may find,

as it has in the past, that a defendant believing that a court lacks jurisdiction,

may elect to ignore the proceeding, suffer the default judgment, and then collaterally attack

that judgment when the judgment creditor attempts to enforce it.

Enforcement, however, must be adversarial in nature, or actually invading a personal

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