Title: Ex parte Scottsdale Insurance Company.

State: alabama

Issuer: Alabama Supreme Court

Document:

STATE OF ALABAMA -- JUDICIAL DEPARTMENT
THE SUPREME COURT OF ALABAMA
OCTOBBR TERM, 2014-2015

1140631

Ex parte Scottsdale Insurance Company. PETITION FOR WRIT OF
MANDAMUS (In re: Har-Mar Collision, Inc. v. Scottsdale
Insurance Company et al.) (Mobile Circuit Court: cv-11-838)

ORDER

The petition for a writ of mandamus of Scottsdale
Insurance Company directed to the Honorable Michael A
Youngpeter, Judge of the Circuit Court of Mobile County,
having been filed and submitted to the Court,

IT IS ORDERED that the petition for a writ of mandamus is
denied.

IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that the emergency motion to stay
the proceedings in the trial court is moot

Moore, C.J., and Stuart, Bolin, Parker, Shaw, Main, Wise,
and Bryan, JJ., concur.

Murdock, J., concurs specially.
1140631
MURDOCK, Justice (concurring specially}.

Scottsdale Insurance Company seeks mandamus relief fron
this Court in regard to the Mobile Circuit Court's decision to
deny its motion to dismiss certain claims against it for lack
of standing. I concur in the denial of this petition

As a general rule, interlocutory appellate review is not
available by way of a petition for a writ of mandamus seeking
to overturn a trial court's denial of a motion to dismiss or
its denial of a motion for a summary judgment. x par:
Liberty Nat'l Life Ing, Co., 825 So. 24 758, 761-62 (Ala.
2002). Among the exceptions to this general rule is one that
allows this Court to consider a petition for a writ of
mandamus when the petitioner's motion asserts a lack of
subject-matter jurisdiction in the trial court. Bx_paxte
Heal hcorp., 974 So. 24 288, 292 (Ala. 2007). Here,
Scottsdale Insurance asserts a lack of subject-matter
jurisdiction on the ground that Har-Mar Collision, Inc., the
plaintiff below, does not have "standing" to file an action
alleging breach of contract and bad faith because, according
to Scottsdale Insurance, Har-Mar is not a party to the

contract at issue.
1140631
It may be considered axiomatic, however, that a party who
claims a private right of action against another has standing
to assert its claim in our courts. The claim may fail for
lack of support in the law or in the facts, including, in the
case of a claim of breach of contract, a lack of proof of the
existence of a contract between the plaintiff and the
defendant. such a failure, however, is a failure on the
merits, not a failure of standing on the part of the plaintiff
to assert its claim and to attempt to prove the claim. And
the prospect of failure of a claim on such grounds certainly
does not deprive the trial court of the subject-matter
jurisdiction to decide whether a claim properly presented to
At does in fact find support in the law and in the facts. Our
precedents are now clear to this effect. See Ex parte
Home Loans Servicing, LP, (Ms. 1110373, Sept. 13, 2013]
So. 34__, ___ (Ala. 2013) (overruling Cadle v. Shabani, 950
So. 2d 277 (Ala. 2006), and discussing at length the
inapplicability of standing as a gatekeeping mechanism in
private-law actions, as opposed to public-law actions);
Ex parte Rhodes, 144 So, 34 316, 318-19 (Ala. 2013); Whitty v.

Montgomery cnty,, 141 So. 3d 1015, 1020-21 (Ala. 2013);
1140631,

EX parte MERSCORP, , 141 So, 3d 984, 991-92 (Ala. 2013);
Ex parte Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., 78 So, 34 959, 978-79

(Ala. 2011); Steele v, Federal Nat'l Mortg. Ass'n, 69 So. 34
89, 91 n.2 (Ala. 2010); and Wyeth, Inc. v. Blue Cross & Blue
Shield of Alabama, 42 So. 3d 1216, 1219-21 (Ala. 2010).