UNITED STATES OF AMERICA v. KIM is a great case to show people that mishaps and blunders happen all the time, many times at great expense and effort to the people involved.
This was a case where H. Kim, owed the government over $800,000 in taxes. In order to get its money, the government filed a motion to foreclose upon a piece of property that H. Kim owned, along with S. Kim (his son).
The government served them in June of 2006, and the Kim’s did not respond. The government then filed for an entry of default on Aug 14, 2006 with prompted both the Kim’s to answer. The court gave the Kim’s until November 14 to file answers, wth S Kim having until November 28 to respond to an action by the government.
Funniest thing happened on November 9th, 5 days before the deadline for the Kim’s, the district court granted the govts. motion for a default against S Kim, and ordered the marshals service to sell the property.
Don’t get me wrong, H. Kim owned the government the money, also he missed a number of deadlines himself, but the district court basically trampled any rights that S Kim had in the property. They told him he had until November 14th to respond, and yet entered a judgment against him on the 7th. Great justice system isn’t it.
Now, S Kim is forced to incur all sorts of attorney fees to appeal a ruling that was flawed to begin with. This brings to light an important truth of our legal system, if you don’t money, you don't have justice.
