Opinion ID: 1298362
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Lack of Timely Disposition of the Appeal

Text: Appellant next argues that the circuit court erred in failing to dismiss the appeal when it was not concluded within 90 days after being regularly placed upon the docket of the circuit court, as required by West Virginia Code § 50-5-12(c)(6) (1994) and Rule 16.11(b) of the West Virginia Trial Court Rules in regards to an appeal of a civil case from a magistrate court in a case heard before a jury. Appellant argues that the circuit court has no jurisdiction to grant relief in the appeal after the expiration of that 90-day period and urges us to literally enforce the provisions of West Virginia Code § 50-5-12(c)(6) (1994). [17]
In the circumstances here, we do not believe that the circuit court's failure to timely act creates a jurisdictional defect. Because the circuit court treated this appeal as de novo, at least initially, we look first at West Virginia Code § 50-5-12(d) (1994), and the provisions of Rule 16.11(b) of the Trial Court Rules requiring that a final judgment order in a de novo civil appeal from a magistrate court shall be entered within six (6) months of the receipt of the magistrate court file by the clerk of the circuit court. T.C.R. 16.11(b). The record discloses that the clerk of the circuit court received the magistrate court file in this case on July 21, 2000. Therefore, the entry of the judgment order of the circuit court order on February 28, 2001, clearly did not meet the six-month time frame specified by Rule 16.11(b) of the Trial Court Rules for de novo appeals. The question now is whether that time frame is jurisdictional. The Legislature is vested with the sole authority to define the appellate jurisdiction of circuit courts in cases originating in the magistrate courts. W.Va. Const. art. VIII, § 6. West Virginia Code § 50-5-12(d)(2) (1994) speaks expressly only to when a civil appeal de novo is stale because of a failure to prosecute. That statute requires that if such an appeal is not brought on for hearing before the end of the second term after the appeal is docketed in the circuit court, it shall be considered abandoned in the absence of cause being timely shown and that any dismissed appeal shall not be reinstated after the close of the next regular term. We are of the opinion that the provisions of West Virginia Code § 50-5-12(d)(2) (1994) set the only jurisdictional timeliness parameters of a de novo appeal to a circuit court of a civil case from a magistrate court. Those parameters address a failure to prosecute, not a delay in the circuit court's ruling on the appeal. With respect to Rule 16.11(b) of the Trial Court Rules, we note that it is a part of the standards established by this Court to promote the timely disposition of cases and does not operate to limit the jurisdiction of the circuit courts. [18] We conclude that the time periods specified in Rule 16.11(b) of the Trial Court Rules for the disposition by circuit courts of appeals from magistrate courts are administrative, not jurisdictional. Applying the two-term jurisdictional test in West Virginia Code § 50-5-12(d)(2) (1994), we note first that Rule 2.21 of the Trial Court Rules fixes the terms of the Circuit Court of Grant County as commencing in the months of March, July and November. The order fixing times for the filing of briefs was entered on or about October 30, 2000, and the briefing schedule concluded by January 20, 2001. Clearly, the appeal was brought on by the parties for hearing well within the time limits fixed by West Virginia Code § 50-5-12(d)(2) (1994).
We turn next to consideration of West Virginia Code § 50-5-12(c) (1994), the statutory provision actually applicable to this appeal of a civil case heard in magistrate court with a jury. That section specifies, as does Rule 16.11(b) of the West Virginia Trial Court Rules, that appeal proceedings in a case heard before a jury shall be concluded in the circuit court within 90 days after the case is docketed there. However, we find no express direction in section 12(c) that the 90-day limit is to be jurisdictional. Section 12(c), unlike Section 12(d), is simply silent on the jurisdictional question. We cannot conclude that there was any intention by the Legislature to deprive the circuit courts of jurisdiction in a civil appeal of a case heard by a jury 90 days after the docketing of the appeal. And, as in the matter of cases to be appealed to the circuit court de novo, Rule 16.11(b) of the Trial Court Rules must be seen as administrative, not jurisdictional. Accordingly, we conclude that the circuit court retained jurisdiction to hear and decide this case when on February 28, 2000, it entered the order here appealed.