Court Opinion

ID: 9716065
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 06:24:46.598608+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:41.111025
License: Public Domain

MATHIAS, Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
Although I fully concur with the majority as to the issues presented in the appeal of Porter Development, LLC and Eagle Services Corporation, I respectfully dissent from the majority's denial of the First National Bank of Valparaiso's request for costs, expenses and attorney fees in its cross-appeal.
First National Bank correctly refers to the statutory language of Indiana Code section 28-9-5-3 in making its argument:
If a depository financial institution pays the funds to the court, the depository financial institution is entitled to recover and collect the costs and expenses, including attorney's fees, incurred by the depository financial institution in the in-terpleader action.
The majority does not find that First National Bank is not a depository financial institution under the statute, and specifically finds that the bank correctly resorted to the interpleader process in this case. Rather, they parse the word "entitled."
Indiana Code section 1-1-4-1(1) sets forth the applicable rule of construction:
Words and phrases shall be taken in their plain, or ordinary and usual, sense. Technical words and phrases having a peculiar and appropriate meaning in the law shall be understood according to their technical import.
The majority does not assert that "entitled" is a technical word or part of a technical phrase so as to remove it from its "plain, ordinary and usual, sense."
The "plain, ordinary and usual, sense" or meaning of a word is commonly and most easily found in a dictionary. While the Black's Law Dictionary definition of "entitle" argued by First National Bank is accurate and supports the bank's position, the "plain, ordinary and usual, sense" of the word is even stronger and should control.
The relevant definition of "entitle" from the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary is "to furnish with proper grounds for seeking or claiming something [this ticket entitles the bearer to free admission]."5 In the same source, the relevant definitions of the noun "entitlement" are: "a:; the state or condition of being entitled: RIGHT b: a right to benefits specified especially by law or contract."
Similarly, the Cambridge International Dictionary of English defines the verb "en*569title" as "to give someone the right to do or have something" and the noun "entitlement" as "something that you have right to do or have, or when you have the right to do or have something."6 Review of other dictionaries yields much the same results.
In light of our basic rule of statutory construction under Indiana Code section 1-1-4-1, we need not require that the magic words "shall" or "must" appear in order to "entitle" a party to enforce the clear meaning of the statute at issue.

. See Merriam-Webster Dictionary website available at http://woww.m-w.com/dictionary (last visited on November 8, 2005).

. Cambridge International Dictionary of English website available at http://dictio-nary.cambridge.org (last visited on November 8, 2005).