Court Opinion

ID: 9766813
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 04:59:52.692454+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:30:26.464533
License: Public Domain

SUPPLEMENTAL OPINION ON DENIAL OF REHEARING JANUARY 30, 1989 Tom Glaze, Justice. In his petition for rehearing, appellant argues this court’s opinion seemed to permit the trial court to abdicate exercising its discretion when refusing to impose Rule 11 sanctions. He suggests the only reason underlying the trial court’s finding that the Rule 11 motion was without merit was that the appellees were the prevailing parties in the municipal court proceeding. In other words, appellant claims that since the trial court accorded dispositive weight to the municipal court judgment, the court thereby failed to exercise its own discretion when ruling on the motion.  Although the trial court remarked that the critical factor in denying appellant’s Rule 11 motion involved the appellees’ success in municipal court, the court never stated — as appellant suggests — that the municipal court judgment was the sole reason for its ruling. As we clearly related in our opinion, the trial judge, when ruling on the parties’ motions, had the municipal court record before him as well as the extensive briefs and arguments of the parties. We are unwilling to conclude that he failed to consider or ignored these matters when he dismissed this cause and denied Rule 11 sanctions. Appellant seems to premise his argument on the fact that the evidence before the trial court showed that the appellees’ trespass action against the appellant had been frivolously filed. We cannot agree. Appellees submitted evidence, along with their motion to dismiss, which countered appellant’s motion and argument that the appellees’ claim had no factual basis. Clearly, this evidence supports, in part, why the appellees initially brought their action against the appellant and offered a basis for appellees having prevailed in the municipal court proceeding. With this record before him, the trial judge was well within his discretion to rule that the municipal judgment favoring appellees was significant and was reason enough to show appellees’ action was not frivolous nor subject to Rule 11 sanctions.  Apparently, the appellant is troubled because the trial court did not specifically note such other evidence or findings when dismissing appellees’ cause and denying appellant’s request for Rule 11 sanctions. As noted earlier, the court only referred to the municipal court judgment that was awarded appellees. Of course, the trial court was not required to give detailed reasons for its action. Even so, under ARCP Rule 52, appellant certainly could have requested the trial court to set out facts and conclusions of law which constituted the grounds for its decision. He failed to do so. Thus, on appeal, we are relegated to a review of the entire record to determine if the record supports the trial court’s decision. We have no doubts that it does. Accordingly, we conclude the trial court properly exercised its discretion in ruling on appellant’s Rule 11 motion, and from our review of the record, we are unable to say it abused its discretion in denying his motion. For the foregoing reasons, we deny appellant’s petition for rehearing. Holt, C.J., Dudley and Newbern, JJ., would grant.