In re URANIUM ANTITRUST LITIGATION. WESTINGHOUSE ELECTRIC CORPORATION, Plaintiff, v. RIO ALGOM LIMITED, Rio Algom Corporation, Rio Tinto Zinc Corporation Limited,RTZ Services Limited, Rio Tinto Zinc Corporation, Conzinc Rio Tinto of Australia Limited, Mary Kathleen Uranium Limited, Pancontinental Mining Limited, Queensland Mines Limited, Nuclear Fuels Corporation, Anglo-American Corporation of South Africa, Limited, Engelhard Minerals and Chemicals Corporation, Denison Mines, Limited,Denison Mines (U.S.) Incorporated, Noranda Mines Limited, Gulf Oil Corporation,Gulf Minerals Canada Limited, Kerr-McGee Corporation, the Anaconda Company, Getty Oil Company, Utah International Inc., Phelps Dodge Corporation, Western Nuclear, Inc., Homestake Mining Company, Atlas Corporation, Reserve Oil and Minerals Corporation, United Nuclear Corporation, Federal Resources Corporation, and Pioneer Nuclear, Inc., Defendants, 473 F. Supp. 382

Summary

The court found that the defaults were not the result of inadvertence or excusable neglect. The defendants chose not to appear or answer the complaint in any manner whatsoever, despite ample opportunity to do so. The court was told that one of the defaulters directed its agents to destroy the copies of the summons and complaint by tearing up each page, which they did. Several others were persistently uncooperative to plaintiff's later subpoenas for testimony and documents needed in related litigation. Thus, the court granted plaintiff's motion for entry of final default judgments on the issue of liability against the nine defendants and ordered that judgment be entered pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 54(b). However, the court denied plaintiff's motion for entry of findings of fact and conclusions of law in support of the default judgment. The court found that the entry of detailed findings as to the defaulting defendants would increase the opportunities for inconsistent adjudications when ...