Red Gate Motel, Inc. v. Jo-Ann Albanese

Syllabus

In these consolidated appeals arising from a landlord-tenant eviction action, the defendant, Jo-Ann Albanese, appealed pro se from (1) a Superior Court judgment awarding possession and damages to the plaintiff, Red Gate Motel, Inc., (2) the denial of her motion to vacate that judgment, and (3) the denial of her motion to reconsider the motion to vacate. On appeal, the defendant argued that the trial justice abused her discretion by not \afford[ing] her a full opportunity to be heard\ on her retaliatory defenses at trial, by failing to acknowledge Ms. Albanese's reasons for her purported excusable neglect and subsequently denying her motions to vacate and reconsider, and by relying on incomplete or inadequate information in denying her motions. The Supreme Court concluded that, based on the lack of a complete transcript from the lower-court proceedings and the absence of any reversible error in the portions of the transcript that were provided, the trial justice neither misconceived nor overlooked material evidence, nor did she abuse her discretion. Accordingly, the Supreme Court affirmed the judgment and orders of the Superior Court.