A party's attorney failing to carefully read an agreed-judgment entry does not provide a court with a basis to vacate a judgment

Estate of Bevery Hersh, 1st Dist. No. C-130212, 2014-Ohio-612. A trust beneficiary joined all the other parties in signing an agreed-judgment entry to distribute funds from the trust to the trust beneficiaries. The beneficiary then filed a motion to vacate the entry and asked that another proposed judgment entry be adopted instead. The parties, however, could not reach further agreement, and the court upheld the original judgment entry. The beneficiary appealed this decision, claiming that the court was improperly substituting its own discretion for that of the trustees. Yet the appellate court upheld the trial court's determination because the beneficiary had failed to show the required mistake, inadvertence, surprise, or excusable neglect to relieve the beneficiary from the final judgment under Ohio Civil Rule 60(B)(1). The appellate court found that courts are not inclined to find excusable neglect in situations where an attorney's alleged neglectful conduct is the basis for the motion to vacate. Accordingly, the appellate court found that the lower court did not abuse its discretion by failing to vacate the agreed-judgment entry that the parties had drafted, signed, and presented to the lower court.