Considering an appeal from a judgment of the Superior Court denying plaintiff's motions to quash a writ of execution issued in 2010 and for relief from a prior judgment that became final in 2007 based on this Court's subsequent decision in Joseph v. Inter-Ocean Ins. Agency, Inc., 59 V.I. 820 (V.I. 2013), the judgment below is affirmed. The interpretation of a law by the Supreme Court of the Virgin Islands does not render an earlier-rendered final judgment of the Superior Court void even though it was based on a different understanding of the same law that leads to a different result, absent some extraordinary circumstance. Here, the Superior Court's decision on November 5, 2015 holding that the judgment in defendant's favor was valid when it was entered in 2007, and that there is nothing in Joseph indicating that the holding in that case should be applied retroactively to cases that had been fully resolved years prior, is correct. In addition, the Superior Court did not abuse its discretion in denying plaintiff's motion to quash the writ of execution, because the defendant, as the judgment creditor, did not act in bad faith when it directed plaintiff to make payments to one of its agents in fulfillment of the judgment. Accordingly, the Superior Court's judgment is affirmed.
Supreme Court Of The Virgin Islands