Opinion ID: 2621377
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: the court of appeals' ruling on the claim of malicious prosecution undermines the entire verdict

Text: ¶5 The court of appeals reversed outright the award based on abuse of process and remanded Mr. Davis's claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress for a new trial. We granted certiorari to consider three questions: (1) whether Mr. Hatch waived any entitlement to a jury instruction on his statute of limitations defense to Mr. Davis's claim of intentional infliction of emotional distress by failing to offer a legally correct instruction on that issue, (2) whether Mr. Davis was entitled to the benefit of an exception to the presence rule for intentional infliction of emotional distress, and (3) whether Mr. Davis sufficiently alleged that Mr. Hatch had committed a wilful act as part of his claim for abuse of process. ¶6 We postpone our analysis of these questions to consider the implications of the court of appeals' dismissal of Mr. Davis's malicious prosecution claim. Neither party sought certiorari review of any issue relating to this cause of action. The manner in which the court of appeals dispatched the malicious prosecution claim leaves us with a sense of uncertainty about how to interpret the court's decision on the claims we have agreed to review. ¶7 It is unclear to us whether the court of appeals intended that its reversal of the trial court on this issue mandated a new trial on Mr. Davis's remaining claims. Because we can discern no other reason for the court of appeals to have taken up the question of when Mr. Hatch's motion to dismiss should have been granted, we conclude that the court contemplated this portion of its holding to undermine the legitimacy of the entire verdict.