First Bank & Trust Company of Idaho (bank) brought this action to collect an alleged debt. A jury trial was held, and a verdict was rendered in favоr of the defendant, Parker Brothers, Inc. On November 19, 1984, the bank made a timely I.R. C.P. 50(b) motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict or, in the alternаtive, a new trial under Rule 59(a). After considering oral argument and the briefs in support of the bank’s motion, the district court denied it on February 28, 1985. Over one month later, on April 4,1985, the bank filed a “motion for reconsideration” of the denial of the motion. Over оbjection, the district court granted the motion and ordered that Parker Brothers would either accept a remittitur or a new trial would be granted. Parker Brothers contended below, without success, that the district court was without authority to recоnsider its denial of the bank’s motion. We agree and reverse the district court decision.
The issue raised in this case is whether or not the motion for reconsideration filed on April 4, 1985, thirty-five days after the trial court denied the motion for j.n.o.v. or in the alternative for a new trial, was timely. If it was not, the trial court erred in reconsidering its order denying the motion.
This case requires us agаin to address the preliminary issue of whether, under the Idaho Rules of Civil Procedure, there is such a pleading as a “motion to reconsider” a trial court’s previous ruling on a previously decided motion. A “motion to reconsider” has been called “a procedural practice of longstanding and regular utilization____”
Hamilton v. Rybar,
There аre several types of available recognized motions which perform the same or similar function as a motion fоr reconsideration. Among them are: (1) a Rule 59(a) motion for new trial or amendment of judgment; or (2) a Rule 59(e) motion to altеr or amend a judgment; or (3) a Rule 60(b) motion for relief from judgment. Each of these motions is accompanied by certain рrocedural requirements as to time of filing and grounds for filing that movants must meet.
I.R.C.P. 59(a) permits a district court to grant new trials and to аmend judgments based on a variety of grounds. Rule 59(a) motions must be made within ten days of the judgment. I.R.C.P. 59(b) and (e). The bank’s motion for reconsideration was filed approximately Ah months after entry of the judgment and thirty-five days after denial of the bank’s timely motion for judgment nоtwithstanding the verdict or new trial. Therefore, even liberally construing the bank’s motion for reconsideration as a Rule 59 motion is unavailing to the bank because, having been filed more than ten days after the judgment or order sought to be reconsiderеd, it was not timely-
The bank additionally urges on appeal that its “motion for reconsideration” should be considered as an I.R.C.P. 60(b)
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motion for relief from judgment. A Rule 60(b) motion permits a district court to grant relief from a judgment based on mistake, or newly discovered evidence, or fraud, or misrepresentation, or misconduct, or void or satisfied judgments if filed within six months. Although the bank’s “motion for rеconsideration” meets the time of filing requirements, the bank has failed to demonstrate grounds to support a 60(b) motion. Rule 60(b) requires a showing of good cause and specifies particular grounds upon which relief may be afforded.
Lowe v. Lym,
“COMES NOW, ... the Plaintiff in this mattеr, and moves the Court to reconsider its MEMORANDUM DECISION with regards to the denial for Plaintiff’s Motion for Judgment Notwithstanding the Verdict or for New Trial, on thе grounds and for the reason that Defendant would be unjustly enriched in the amount of $5,018.00 together with interest thereon as more fully exрlained in the accompanying brief.”
The motion, which raised the issue of unjust enrichment does not reach any of the grounds fоr relief listed in Rule 60(b). I.R.C.P. 60(b)(6), 1 which is the catchall for the rule, was not intended to allow a court to reconsider the legal basis fоr its original decision. The unjust enrichment claim only presents a different legal theory of why the bank should prevail. Discovery of new legal theories does not constitute grounds for bringing a 60(b) motion. Accordingly, the bank was not entitled to relief under 60(b)(6).
We do not hold or intimate by our decision today that motions for reconsideration are not authorized simply because they have not been expressly recognized in the rules. Our previous cases demonstrate otherwise. What we hold is that such motiоns for reconsideration presumably must be identified as asserting one of the grounds for relief recognized in one of our existing rules, and then must be filed within the time provided in that existing rule. A motion for reconsideration which does not assert some grounds for relief recognized under another existing rule, or which is not filed within the time required by such other rule, does not properly invoke thе jurisdiction of the trial courts, nor does it toll the running of the appeal time on any order or judgment sought to be reviewed by such a motion for reconsideration. 2
The district court’s order granting the motion for reconsideration is reversed and the оriginal verdict and judgment are reinstated. Costs to appellant. No attorney fees.
Notes
. “Rule 60(b).. Mistakes, Inadvertence, excusable neglect, newly discovered evidence, fraud, grounds for relief from judgment on order. — On motion and uрon such terms as are just, the court may relieve a party or his legal representative from a final judgment, order, or proceeding for the following reasons: ... (6) any other reason justifying relief from the operation of the judgment____”
. The function оf a "motion for reconsideration” is presently under review- by the Idaho Supreme Court Rules of Civil Procedure Advisory Committee.