Opinion ID: 2279271
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: the trial court had jurisdiction to enter the order of august 8, 2003

Text: The Hills argue that the Judgments of May 12, 2003, based on the jury verdicts of the first trial, must be reinstated because by the time the trial court entered the Order and Opinion of August 8 setting aside the Hills' favorable jury verdicts and granting KLC a new trial, it no longer had jurisdiction. The Court of Appeals concluded otherwise. We agree, and accordingly affirm that portion of the Court of Appeals opinion. The issue arises because of a mistake that occurred soon after the return of the jury verdicts in the first trial. KLC tendered to the trial court a proposed final judgment which grossly understated, and therefore misrepresented, the amounts awarded by the jury at trial. [2] The trial court mistakenly entered the faulty judgment. Thus, the Hills found it necessary to move the court to set aside or amend the defective judgments and enter ones that reflected the true verdict. KLC moved to vacate the judgment and to grant a new trial, asserting the substantive grounds mentioned above. Several months later, on May 12, 2003, the trial court entered two orders (one pertaining to Kim's claims, and one pertaining to Robert's claims) vacating the defective judgment and directing the entry of new judgments properly reflecting the jury verdicts. The orders also stated, It should be noted that these Judgments are not final and appealable and are subject to further rulings on the motions currently pending to alter, amend, or vacate. Entered with each order was a judgment consistent with the trial verdict; one captioned Final Judgment in Favor of Kimberly G. Hill, and one captioned Final Judgment in Favor of Robert W. Hill. Both were signed by the trial judge as entered on May 12, 2003. Except for the word final in the caption, neither of the two judgments contained language designating it as a final and appealable order. No further motions challenging the May 12 Judgments were filed. On August 8, 2003, the trial court entered an order setting aside the jury verdicts in favor of the Hills and granting the motion KLC had filed for a new trial following the entry of the erroneous judgment. The main thrust of the Hills' argument may be fairly restated as follows. CR 50.02, CR 52.02, and CR 59 all prescribe a ten-day window following the entry of a judgment within which a party may move to challenge the judgment, or within which the trial court may, of its own volition, amend or vacate a judgment. Otherwise, the judgment becomes final. CR 73.02(1) provides that, in the absence of such a motion, a notice of appeal must be filed within thirty days after the date of notation of service of the judgment, or it becomes final. Thus, the only events that delay the finality of a judgment are those described in CR 50, CR 52, or CR 59, or the filing of a notice of appeal under CR 73. Because none of those events occurred after the entry of the May 12 Judgments, the Hills contend they became final well before August 8, 2003, when the trial court vacated the May 12 Judgments. Under that reasoning, it follows that the trial court had lost jurisdiction over the case when it voided the jury verdicts from the first trial and ordered the new trial. Because we affirm the Court of Appeals on this issue, and agree with its reasoning, we quote from its opinion verbatim: [T]he judgments entered on May 12, 2003, were not final because they were attached to an order which specifically stated that these Judgments are not final and appealable and are subject to further rulings on the motions currently pending to alter, amend or vacate. The order specifically reserved for future adjudication the trial court's ruling on KLC's January 31, 2003, Amended Motion for JNOV; Motion for New Trial and/or Motion to Alter, Amend or Vacate. CR 54.01 defines a final judgment as follows: A judgment is a written order of a court adjudicating a claim or claims in an action or proceeding. A final or appealable judgment is a final order adjudicating all the rights of all the parties in an action or proceeding, or a judgment made final under Rule 54.02. Where the context requires, the term judgment as used in these rules shall be construed final judgment or final order. (Emphasis added). [I]f an order entered in a cause does not put an end to the action, but leaves something further to be done before the rights of the parties are determined, it is interlocutory and not final. Hubbard v. Hubbard, 303 Ky. 411, 197 S.W.2d 923, 924 (Ky.1946). As the trial court's May 12, 2003, order left something further to be done (i.e., to rule on KLC's pending motions), the attached judgments were not final judgments. Simply put, at the time the judgments were entered, all the rights of all the parties had not been adjudicated. Accordingly, the principle that a trial court loses its jurisdiction ten days following the entry of the final judgment is not applicable. The judgments were not final. Similarly, the 30-day period for filing an appeal to this Court pursuant to CR 73.02 did not begin to run. It follows that the trial court retained jurisdiction to enter the August 8, 2003, order and that the order was not null and void as asserted by the Hills. Because the issues raised in those motions were not resolved by the trial court when it corrected the defect as to the verdict amounts, it was within the discretion of the trial court to deny finality to the judgment under CR 54.02, which in relevant part states: [T]he court may grant a final judgment upon one or more but less than all of the claims ... upon a determination that there is no just reason for delay. The judgment shall recite such determination and shall recite that the judgment is final. In the absence of such recital, any order or other form of decision, however designated, which adjudicates less than all the claims or the rights and liabilities of less than all the parties shall not terminate the action as to any of the claims or parties, and the order or other form of decision is interlocutory and subject to revision at any time before the entry of judgment adjudicating all the claims and the rights and liabilities of all the parties. We do not overlook the Hills' contention that the motions upon which the August 8 Order was entered were filed before the entry of the May 12 Judgments. We decline to decide whether our Rules of Civil Procedure authorize the filing of such motions before entry of the judgment, or whether filing a motion to set aside a judgment prior to the entry of the judgment falls within the ten-day window our Rules provide, because that is not what happened here. A judgment, albeit a faulty one, was entered in January 2003 and KLC filed motions to vacate it in a timely manner. The trial court had discretion to resolve one issue (the error in the amount of the verdict) and reserve others for further consideration. It was within the trial court's discretion to consider KLC's pending motions without requiring them to be refiled after entry of the May 12 Judgments. We do not share the Hills' concern that this ruling destroys the finality of judgments. Finally, we note the Hills' argument that, [KLC] ... should not be allowed to attack its own judgment and that the motions KLC filed to set aside the defective judgment should not be allowed to be transferred to the May 12 Judgments. We appreciate the frustration implied in that argument. The tender of the defective judgment added a very complex dimension to an already complicated case. But, the defective judgments are not KLC's own. Regardless of how or by whom the judgments were tendered, the entry of the judgment is the trial court's responsibility, and the error contained in the judgment is an error of the trial court. By tendering the defective judgments, KLC did not waive its right to seek relief in the form of a motion for a new trial or a judgment notwithstanding the verdict. While, as we state below, we disagree with the trial judge's ruling on the substantive issues presented in KLC's post-trial motions, we do not fault his effort to resolve the post-trial procedural problems in a fair and reasonable manner, consistent with the Rules of Civil Procedure. Having determined that the trial court had not lost jurisdiction when it entered the August 8, 2003 Order setting aside the trial verdict and judgment of May 12, 2003, we must now consider whether the Court of Appeals correctly addressed the merits of the issues raised therein. Two issues presented by that Order are now before this Court. [3] First, the trial court set aside the jury verdict and granted a new trial because it concluded that the wrongful discharge in violation of public policy claims were preempted by the civil rights claims, and should not have been submitted to the jury. Second, the trial court held that it had erred when it ruled that KLC was not entitled to a jury instruction on the defense of qualified privilege. We turn now to those issues, as they have been presented to us.