Opinion ID: 2518323
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: parduhn's waiver claim

Text: ¶ 19 Parduhn first argues that our remand in Parduhn I was erroneous. He contends that section 31A-21-104 is an affirmative defense and therefore must be raised in a responsive pleading pursuant to rules 12(b) and 8(c) of the Utah Rules of Civil Procedure. According to Parduhn, the Buchi survivors first raised section 31A-21-104 as a defense in a motion filed after the district court's deadline for amending pleadings. Because the Buchi survivors did not raise their section 31A-21-104 argument in a timely manner, Parduhn contends, they waived it. ¶ 20 Parduhn raised this same argument in Parduhn I. We rejected it. Relying on section 31A-21-104, we held that Parduhn lost his insurable interest in the proceeds when the buy-sell agreement dissolved and we remanded the case to the district court for an equitable distribution. Parduhn petitioned for rehearing pursuant to rule 35 of the Utah Rules of Appellate Procedure, but we denied his petition. Parduhn now contends that, because our opinion in Parduhn I did not explicitly identify and reject his waiver argument, we can, and should, consider it anew. ¶ 21 We decline Parduhn's invitation to reconsider our prior resolution of this issue. When we remanded the case to the district court pursuant to section 31A-21-104, we implicitly rejected Parduhn's waiver argument. Parduhn I, 2002 UT 93 at ¶¶ 16-17, 61 P.3d 982. That holding, as the Buchi survivors correctly argue, has become the law of this case, binding Parduhn in all subsequent stages of litigation. See Thurston v. Box Elder County, 892 P.2d 1034, 1037 & n. 2 (Utah 1995) (The `law of the case' is a legal doctrine under which a decision made on an issue during one stage of a case is binding in successive stages of the same litigation.). ¶ 22 Parduhn also raised the waiver argument in his petition for rehearing of Parduhn I. With the waiver issue squarely before us, we denied the petition for rehearing, and the waiver issue, momentarily resurrected, again died, this time for good. In short, a fair reading of our decision in Parduhn I and our denial of Parduhn's petition for rehearing make it abundantly clear that we found Parduhn's waiver argument unavailing. Having twice rejected it, we decline to revisit it now. [4]