Opinion ID: 2600701
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Statutory Analysis and Relevant Case Law Regarding Appeals from the County Court

Text: We first consider the statutes, procedural rule, Chief Justice directive, and case law relevant to the issue of waived costs for indigent parties in county court appeals. The goal in construing statutes is to ascertain and give effect to the General Assembly's intent. In re Crow v. Penrose-St. Francis Healthcare Sys., 169 P.3d 158, 165 (Colo.2007). We initially look to the statutory language to ascertain that intent. Id. If the language is ambiguous or conflicts with other provisions of the statute, we will resort to other tools of statutory interpretation. Id. To effectuate the General Assembly's intent, we will read and consider the statute as a whole, giving consistent, harmonious, and sensible effect to all parts. Id. The first statute at issue is section 13-6-311, which sets out the procedure for appeals from the county court. It reads in relevant part: (1)(a) If either party in a civil action believes that the judgment of the county court is in error, he may appeal to the district court by filing notice of appeal in the county court within fifteen days after the date of entry of judgment and by filing within the said fifteen days an appeal bond with the clerk of the county court. The bond shall be furnished by a corporate surety authorized and licensed to do business in this state as surety, or one or more sufficient private sureties, or may be a cash deposit by the appellant and, if the appeal is taken by the plaintiff, shall be conditioned to pay the costs of the appeal and the counterclaim, if any, and, if the appeal is taken by the defendant, shall be conditioned to pay the costs and judgment if the appealing party fails. The bond shall be approved by the judge or the clerk. (b) Upon filing of the notice of appeal, the posting and approval of the bond, and the deposit by the appellant of an estimated fee in advance for preparing the record, the county court shall discontinue all further proceedings and recall any execution issued. The appellant shall then docket his appeal in the district court. § 13-6-311(1)(a)-(b) (emphasis added). The language of C.R.C.P. 411(a) is substantially identical to section 13-6-311. See Bell, 918 P.2d at 1127 n. 8. At first glance, it appears that State Farm's statutory interpretation could be correct. The statute and corresponding procedural rule do not include any language excepting an indigent party from the requirement that a judgment bond be posted by an appealing defendant from the county court before the appeal can be docketed in the district court. However, as in Bell, we note that the statute does not specifically address the question of whether an indigent party, having been excused from paying costs associated with county court litigation, must nevertheless post an appeal bond for costs [and here, judgment] in order to perfect an appeal to the district court from an adverse county court judgment. See id. at 1126. Moreover, we hesitate to interpret a procedural rule in isolation from relevant legislative direction, id., in this case, regarding the waiver of costs for indigent parties. Thus, we must consider section 13-6-311(1)(a) in the context of section 13-16-103 and C.J.D. 98-01. Section 13-16-103 allows the court to waive any costs owed to the court by an indigent party: If the judge or justice of any court, including the supreme court, is at any time satisfied that any person is unable to prosecute or defend any civil action or special proceeding because he is a poor person and unable to pay the costs and expenses thereof, the judge or justice, in his discretion, may permit such person to commence and prosecute or defend an action or proceeding without the payment of costs;. . . . Thus, in enacting section 13-16-103, the legislature has enabled indigent litigants to prosecute or defend civil actions without payment of costs. Bell, 918 P.2d at 1127. This right also extends to appeals. Id. Pursuant to section 13-16-103, C.J.D. 98-01 details what costs can and cannot be waived for an indigent party at the discretion of the court. [5] Costs that cannot be waived are those owed to a person or entity other than the state, which arise in the course of `prosecuting or defending' a civil action or special proceeding. C.J.D. 98-01(III). These third-party costs include transcript fees (paid to the court reporter), witness fees (paid to the witness), and process server fees (paid to the sheriff or a third-party server). See id. Costs that can be waived are those owed to the state, including filing, reasonable copy, jury, and research fees. Id. at (IV); see also Leidal v. Brunell, 985 P.2d 102, 104 (Colo.App.1999). However, the directive does not state whether cost or judgment bonds can be waived. We have applied section 13-16-103 (and its predecessor) three times to appeals from the county court by indigent parties. In Almarez v. Carpenter , an indigent plaintiff sought to receive free transcripts, arguing that they were required in order to pursue the appeal. 173 Colo. 284, 287-88, 477 P.2d 792, 793-94 (1970). The court, applying the predecessor statute to section 13-16-103, held that it could not waive transcript fees because the statute only allowed the court to waive its own costs, and transcript fees were owed to the court reporter who prepared the transcript. Id. at 288-89, 477 P.2d at 794. In Bell, we considered at length the relationship between sections 13-16-103 and C.R.C.P. 411. [6] There, the issue was whether an indigent plaintiff had to post a cost bond as a precondition for filing his appeal from the county court. 918 P.2d at 1124. The county court had ruled that the plaintiff had to post a cost bond because C.R.C.P. 411(a)'s language was mandatory and without an exception for an indigent party. Id. at 1126. Although acknowledging that the rule did not include any specific language excepting indigent parties from the cost bond requirement, we stated that we could not construe a procedural rule in isolation from relevant legislative direction. See id. This is especially true when the legislative policies are similar to policies reflected by our rules of procedure in general. Id. This court then looked to section 13-16-103 and found that the legislative policy expressed there was that litigants determined to be indigent may proceed or defend civil actions without payment of costs. Id. at 1127. We then concluded that C.R.C.P. 411's requirement of a cost bond had to be read together with section 13-16-103's requirement of the indigent's access to courts through the waiving of court costs: In our view, the plain language of section 13-16-103(1) requires a judicial officer of any court, trial or appellate, to permit an indigent plaintiff to exercise the statutory right to appeal without payment of costs. It would be at best anomalous if an indigent plaintiff were accorded access to the judicial process without payment of costs for purposes of filing a civil action but denied such access to obtain legislatively provided appellate review of an erroneous trial court judgment. At worst, such a construction of C.R.C.P. 411(a) could undermine the right of access to judicial processes established by the General Assembly in furtherance of article II, section 6, of the Colorado Constitution. Id. We then reasoned that nothing in C.R.C.P. 411 indicated a legislative policy that was contrary to the policy affording indigents access to courts that was expressed in section 13-16-103. Id. In sum, we held in Bell that section 13-16-103 modifies C.R.C.P. 411 and section 13-6-311 by allowing indigent county court plaintiffs to appeal to the district court without posting a cost bond. See id. We have since affirmed this holding in Rodden, 52 P.3d 223. There, in a brief, per curiam decision, we held that the county court erred in requiring an indigent plaintiff to post a cost bond in order to appeal to the district court. See id. at 223-24 (Having found that [the plaintiff] was incapable of paying a filing fee on appeal, and was qualified to pursue his appeal in forma pauperis, the County Court should not have conditioned the appeal on [the plaintiff] posting a cost bond.). The issue here is whether the rule of Bell and Rodden applies not just to indigent plaintiffs appealing from the county court who must post a cost bond, but also to indigent defendants seeking appeals who must post a judgment bond as well as a cost bond. While acknowledging the holdings in Bell and Rodden, State Farm argues that they should be limited to indigent plaintiffs and not extended to indigent defendants because judgment bonds are third-party costs, which section 13-16-103, C.J.D. 98-01, and Almarez state cannot be waived. Bryant, on the other hand, argues that it violates principles of statutory interpretation to read sections 13-6-311 and 13-16-103 to afford indigent plaintiffs the right to appeal without posting otherwise required bonds, but not to afford that same right to indigent defendants. In addition, Bryant argues that a judgment bond is not a third-party cost as contemplated by section 13-16-103 and C.J.D. 98-01 because it is not paid to the third party, but merely posted with the court to stay the execution of the judgment. Reading these statutes together and considering our prior case law, we reject State Farm's argument and adopt the views offered by Bryant. First, State Farm's reading of section 13-6-311 would violate our well settled rules of statutory interpretation by negating the legislature's intent in passing section 13-16-103  waiving for indigent parties court costs in all courts, trial as well as appellate. As we said in Bell, we find nothing in the text or purpose of C.R.C.P. 411(a) [and section 13-6-311] to indicate a judicial policy contrary to the legislative policy expressed by section 13-16-103(1). See 918 P.2d at 1127. Thus, State Farm's interpretation ignores this clear legislative intent. Moreover, State Farm's interpretation would render section 13-6-311 internally inconsistent because indigent plaintiffs could appeal without posting a cost bond, whereas indigent defendants could not prosecute the very same appeal unless first posting a judgment bond. Most fundamentally, however, State Farm's argument fails because a judgment bond is not a third-party cost paid to a third party, like a reporter fee or a witness fee, which cannot be waived by the court. Rather, it is only a deposit with the court to stay the execution of the judgment ordered below. As Bryant freely concedes, an indigent defendant whose judgment bond requirement is waived will not enjoy the benefit of posting a judgment bond  that the execution of the judgment is stayed pending the disposition of the appeal. As a result, that indigent party would risk that the judgment will be executed while the case is still on appeal. However, an indigent party's inability to post a judgment bond does not determine whether that party is allowed to pursue the appeal in the first place. Put another way, the judgment bond, although required if a defendant wants to stay an adverse judgment while appealing from the county court, is not a condition precedent to proceeding with the appeal itself.