Judgement Dismissed Without Prejudice

[Menzel]

My question involves judgment recovery in the State of: Michigan

I ran my credit reports and found that I have a judgement against me from an apartment management company back from 9/13/02. I was living in NC when I was summoned, and therefore I did not show for the trail. The judgement went to me by default, for a total of $2600. Since then I have moved back to MI.

I went down to the court house today and got copies made of all the paperwork in my file. I noticed a civil register of actions stating on SEP 13, 2002 - Judgement entered: Noticed mailed to defendant, by default. Signed by the deputy court clerk/judge.

Below that, I see NOV 06, 2002 - Dismissed pursuant to Michigan Court Rule 2.102 (E) - Signed Deputy Clerk.

On another page, I see a page labeled Dismissal Non Service/No Progress. Plaintiff and defendant are listed and
***Order to Dismiss***
The court records disclose that defendant(s) have not been timely served with process according to court rule.

It is ordered that this case is dismissed without prejudice as to: The following Defendants(s): above.

Dated 11/06/02 Deputy Court Clerk.


My question is, does this mean the case is done and over with. Now I understand that the plaintiff can try to bring this back to court until the sol of 10 years in Michigan. It's been well over 6 years with no action, and I don't believe the management company is even in business anymore.

How do I go about getting this off my credit report? Can I fax/mail the two pages described above to the credit bureaus?

Thanks,
Eric

[Mr. Knowitall]

That case history doesn't make sense. If you weren't served, a default judgment should not have been entered. If a default was entered, ending the case, the case shouldn't have been dismissed for lack of progress.

One possibility would be that more than one defendant was named in the suit - that you were served, and a default judgment was entered against you, but that the other defendant wasn't served and thus there was ultimately a dismissal against that defendant.

Another possibility is that there was a clerical mistake by the court that resulted in dismissal despite the entry of a judgment.

I would have to review the case file to figure out what happened.