Opinion ID: 2834548
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: What Matters Is The Judgment

Text: First of all, we should start with the principle that cases are decided by judgments, not mandates. Judgments are rendered by the court, [8] and a majority of the court must agree to them. [9] Mandates, by contrast, are drafted and signed by the clerk; [10] judges rarely even see them. As Justice Pope wrote for this Court 30 years ago in Burrell v. Cornelius : “Judges render judgment; clerks enter them on the minutes.” [11] Our decisions should take effect when the justices act, not the clerk. Second, the appellate rules recognize in many places that the operative act binding the parties is the judgment, not the mandate: $ when a party dies during an appeal, “the appellate court’s judgment will have the same force and effect as if rendered when all parties were living”; [12] $ when public officials leave office, their successors “will be bound by the appellate court’s judgment . . . . ”; [13] and $ when a party voluntarily appears on appeal, or learns of its outcome, that party “is bound by the opinion, judgment , or order . . . .” [14] Because the judgment is the operative act of a court, its date should be the operative date. Third, our judgments should mean what they say. “The controlling intention of the court’s judgment is that expressed on the face of the judgment . . . .” [15] If our judgment says something can or can’t be done, then that ought to be the law — immediately. [16] If a judgment orders children taken from or returned to their parents, that should not wait for the mandate. If a judgment declares a fee unconstitutional, collection ought to stop at once. [17] If our judgments have no effect until the mandate issues, then they do not mean what they say. [18] Fourth, our standard treatment of stay orders shows we intend judgments to take effect immediately. The clerk cannot lift a stay order; the court must do so, and our standard procedure has been to lift a stay when we issue our judgment. [19] The same practice is used in the courts of appeals: stays are lifted when the judgment issues. [20] If our judgments do not take effect immediately, then parties can do whatever they want in the purgatory between judgment and mandate. Fifth, for several decades we have tried to simplify the rules of procedure by insisting that judgments bear a date and that deadlines run from it. To quote Justice Pope in Burrell again: Law professors should teach, writers of legal form books should so correct their books, lawyers should so draft documents, and judges should make certain that above the signature on each judgment or order there are the words: “Signed this______ day of______, 19___.” [21] Today, an appellate decision takes effect on the date of judgment for many purposes, including: when plenary power expires in the court of appeals; [22] when a judgment becomes dormant; [23] when limitations runs for filing a bill of review; [24] when indemnity and third-party claims accrue; [25] and when tolling ends on alter ego claims. [26] Clarity and certainty are lost if the judgment date counts for these purposes, but does not count when deciding when the judgment takes effect. Sixth, judgments take effect immediately for all who are not parties in the case. Usually our opinions apply both prospectively and retroactively, [27] but sometimes we apply a decision prospectively only, in which case our standard practice has been to declare the law from the date of judgment, not the date of finality or the mandate. [28] This appears to be the practice of our sister court too. [29] It would be very odd for our decisions to take effect for third parties before they take effect for the parties involved in the case. Seventh and finally, we expect lower courts to follow our decisions without receiving an explicit order to do so. [30] In mandamus cases, we generally grant the writ conditionally because we expect lower courts to comply without receiving the writ. But how can we expect lower courts to comply with our opinions immediately if they have not yet taken effect?