Opinion ID: 1885183
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 12

Heading: The Unconventional Aspect of this Lawsuit

Text: Trying to determine whether this particular matter is equitable or legal in nature is the main problem with trying to determine whether the March 31, 1993, order is final. But this problem also provides the resolution to the matter because courts do not have subject-matter jurisdiction over political questions. The parties have cited and discussed numerous Alabama cases dealing with the issue of finality. The nature of this lawsuit and the various orders it has engendered is such that the orders are not susceptible to analysis by traditional judicial and common-law rules. Legal remedies and traditional equitable remedies have in common the purpose of restoring an injured party to his status before the injury or of making him whole. Those remedies, despite their differences, are designed to return the parties to the status quo they occupied before the alleged injury. The order of March 31, 1993, in spite of its apparent form as a judicial remedy, is not judicial in nature; it is a political decree, in the nature of a legislative enactment or an executive order. The nonjudicial character of the order makes it impossible for that order to be a final judgment. Legal remedies return the parties to their condition before the injury; the trial judge's order of March 31, 1993, creates an entirely new relationship between the parties in the future. See Liability Order, attached as appendix to Opinion of the Justices No. 338, 624 So.2d at 110-67, for examples of the trial judge's requirements, most of which are not legally quantifiable by the Alabama Constitution. This lack of judicial character to the March 31, 1993, order is the primary reason it was not a final, appealable order. It was a political decree issued to coequal branches of the government, one of whichthe Legislaturewas not properly a party to the case. [37] The order did not direct a party to perform an identifiable legal duty, which the court had authority to issue. The order did not provide a judicial remedy but pretended to establish an ongoing relationship between the trial court and the Legislature and the governor. The circuit court, by that order and by the others that followed it, established itself as the Superintendent of the Alabama Public Education System. The potential term of that position was, at the time the order was issued, and is now, indeterminable. The number of prospective orders is also indefinite. Although this type of lawsuit has not been common to Alabama, recent legal history shows that it has occurred often enough in other states to acquire certain labels and identifying characteristics. [38]