Court Opinion

ID: 9672474
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 03:55:39.812847+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:16.466446
License: Public Domain

SUPPLEMENTAL OPINION ON DENIAL OF REHEARING Per Curiam. MBCC petitions for rehearing asserting this court erred in stating MBCC never argued Westlund v. Nelson, 7 Ark. App. 268, 647 S.W.2d 488 (1983), below either in support of its directed verdict motions or its motion of judgment notwithstanding the verdict. It submits a motion to supplement the record requesting us to include a trial brief filed below which recites the Westlund case in support of MBCC’s motion of judgment NOV. MBCC says it also orally mentioned Westlund to the trial judge in connection with its motion for summary judgment. MBCC concedes that these two references to the Westlund holding were never abstracted, but it asserts those references became relevant only when this court sua sponte observed that the Westlund argument was not made below. Of course, we observed this issue only because MBCC mentioned the Westlund holding in its reply brief on appeal, and upon examining the abstract, we were unable to locate where the Westlund principle had ever been mentioned below. We note, too, that there was no hint of such an argument having been made below especially since the record reflects MBCC made no effort to submit this particular legal theory to the jury.  MBCC had the burden to bring up a sufficient record to demonstrate that the trial court was in error. SD Leasing, Inc. v. RWF Corp., 278 Ark. 530, 647 S.W.2d 447 (1983). In addition, this court, had held that it is precluded from considering an argument on its merits where the party failed to abstract the portion supporting its argument. Kratzke v. Nestle-Beich, Inc., 307 Ark. 158, 817 S.W.2d 889 (1991). MBCC simply failed to meet these requirements as to the issue involving the holding in Westlund and whether that holding was controlling over the theories advanced by Dr. Morgan. For the above reasons, we deny MBCC’s petition for rehearing. Brown, J., not participating.