Opinion ID: 1561088
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Procedural sufficiency of the report

Text: The appellee Association first bases its objection to the report of the case on the ground that the issue raised by the offensive court ruling was not specifically delineated therein. We said in Collett v. Bither, 1970, Me., 262 A.2d 353 at 354 that a trial judge may report an interlocutory matter upon the unilateral request of an aggrieved party, pursuant to Rule 72(c), M.R.C.P., provided that 1) the court has made a ruling in the matter, 2) the movant is an aggrieved party and 3) the trial judge certifies that in his opinion the question of law involved in the interlocutory order or ruling ought to be determined by the Law Court before any further proceedings are taken. Nothing in the rule itself suggests that the ruling about which the movant complains must be expressly set up in formal questionnaire to the Law Court either in the motion to report or in the justice's certificate. So long as the record clearly identifies the issue raised and contains the necessary information to permit a determination of the question, no further particularization is required. Furthermore, whether the trial justice should report an interlocutory order is entirely within his sound judicial discretion. MacLean v. Jack, 1964, 160 Me. 93, 198 A.2d 1. There was no abuse of discretion on the part of the presiding Justice who must have viewed the issue properly circumscribed for ready understanding by the Law Court.