Court Opinion

ID: 9676317
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 05:21:48.001685+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:47.435639
License: Public Domain

Annabelle Clinton Imber, Justice. Earlier this year, in Seidenstricker Farms v. Doss, 372 Ark. 72, 270 S.W.3d 842 (2008), we heard an appeal on the merits of the instant case. In this second appeal, we are asked to review the circuit court’s order granting attorney’s fees. Appellant Seidenstricker Farms had a leasehold agreement with Appellees Warren and Etta Doss, and their predecessors, for several years. However, in 2001, the Dosses informed Seidenstricker Farms that the lease would be terminated for the following year. Seidenstricker Farms then filed a complaint alleging wrongful termination of the lease and requesting damages for lost profits and the cost of repairs and improvements to the property. After a bench trial, the circuit court entered a judgment in favor of the Dosses, finding that the lease was properly terminated. Seidenstricker Farms appealed to this court, and we reversed in Seidenstricker I, concluding that the Dosses wrongfully terminated the lease. Seidenstricker I, 372 Ark. at 79. We then remanded the case for proceedings on the issue of damages. Id. While the initial appeal on the merits was pending, the Dosses filed a motion for attorney’s fees with the circuit court. Seidenstricker Farms filed a response asserting that the fee amount requested by the Dosses was unreasonable. The circuit court entered an order awarding the Dosses attorney’s fees on November 7, 2007, and Seidenstricker Farms filed a notice of appeal from that order on December 3, 2007. On January 15, 2008, after this court reversed the circuit court’s decision in Seidenstricker I, Seidenstricker Farms filed a motion to vacate the order awarding attorney’s fees. In the motion, Seidenstricker Farms argued that after this court’s decision in Seidenstricker I, the Dosses were no longer the “prevailing party” for purposes of Arkansas Code Annotated § 16-22-308 (Repl. 1999). The circuit court, however, never ruled on the motion to vacate. Now, on appeal, Seidenstricker Farms makes the same “prevailing party” arguments as it made in the motion to vacate. Unfortunately, because Seidenstricker Farms did not obtain a ruling on the motion to vacate, its arguments were not preserved for appeal. Pursuant to Arkansas Code Annotated § 16-22-308, the prevailing party in a contract action may be awarded attorney’s fees. Id. Arkansas Rule of Civil Procedure 54(e) governs the procedures for claiming attorney’s fees. See Ark. R. Civ. P. 54(e) (2008). The rule dictates that a party has fourteen (14) days after the entry of judgment to file a claim for attorney’s fees. Id. The comments to that rule clearly state that the time for filing an attorney’s-fees claim shall not be extended due to a pending appeal on the merits. Ark. R. Civ. P. 54(e), Rpt. Notes 1997. However, a circuit court may choose to defer the determination of attorney’s fees until after an appeal on the merits is decided, and in addition “[a] new period for filing will automatically begin if a new judgment is entered following a reversal or remand by the appellate court.” Id. In the instant case, there is no dispute that the Dosses made a timely claim for attorney’s fees, the circuit court entered an order granting the Dosses’ claim, and Seidenstricker Farms filed a timely notice of appeal from that order. Neither is there any argument that the circuit court should have extended the time for filing fee claims until after the pending appeal on the merits. The arguments Seidenstricker Farms made prior to filing the notice of appeal were with regard to the reasonableness of the fee awarded to the Dosses, but the arguments now being made upon appeal are the same “prevailing party” arguments made in the motion to vacate. Thus, the question remains whether this court can address the questions raised in Seidenstricker Farms’s motion. Under Rule 60(a), a circuit court may vacate an order within ninety (90) days of its being entered. Ark. R. Civ. P. 60(a) (2008). We have repeatedly held that a circuit court loses jurisdiction to vacate an order under Rule 60(a) when it fails to do so within ninety (90) days of the entry of the order. See Henson v. Wyatt, 373 Ark. 315, 283 S.W.3d 593 (2008); New Holland Credit Co., LLC v. Hill, 362 Ark. 328, 208 S.W.3d 191 (2005).1   Here, the circuit court made an award of attorney’s fees in favor of the Dosses pursuant to Rule 54(e), and Seidenstricker Farms filed a timely notice of appeal from the attorney’s-fees order. At the time, Seidenstricker Farms objected to the circuit court’s order based upon the alleged unreasonableness of the fees awarded. Following this court’s opinion in Seidenstricker I, Seidenstricker Farms filed a motion to vacate under Arkansas Rule of Civil Procedure 60(a), shifting to an argument that the Dosses were no longer the prevailing party. Seidenstricker Farms never obtained a ruling on the motion.2 Once ninety (90) days had elapsed from the entry of the attorney’s-fees order in this case, the circuit court lost jurisdiction to rule on the motion, and the arguments in the motion essentially died. Moreover, Seidenstricker Farms also did not file an additional notice of appeal citing the motion to vacate. Instead, Seidenstricker Farms proceeded with this appeal based upon the notice of appeal filed in response to the circuit court’s rejection of its “reasonable fees” argument. Accordingly, Seidenstricker Farms’s arguments on appeal were not preserved. It is elementary that our court will not consider arguments that were not preserved for appellate review. Sykes v. Williams, 373 Ark. 236, 283 S.W.3d 209 (2008). We will not do so because it is incumbent upon the parties to raise arguments initially to the circuit court and to give that court an opportunity to consider them. Id. Otherwise, we would be placed in the position of reversing a circuit court for reasons not addressed by that court. Id. Because Seidenstricker Farms did not preserve the “prevailing party” argument made on appeal, we cannot consider that argument and must affirm the circuit court’s order granting the Dosses’ claim for attorney’s fees.3  Hannah, C.J., and Glaze, and Corbin, JJ., dissent.   The circuit court’s lack of jurisdiction deprives our court of jurisdiction to address the arguments made in the motion to vacate. It is well settled that jurisdictional issues may be raised sua sponte by this court. James v. Williams, 372 Ark. 82, 270 S.W.3d 855 (2008).    One of the dissenting opinions is based upon the premise that “Doss is now the losing party.” The dissent, thus, appears to be deciding who the “prevailing party” should be, even though the record before us does not reflect whether the circuit court has ruled on the issue of damages following our remand of the case in Seidenstricker I.    Our holding affirming the circuit court’s original attorney’s-fees order has no bearing on any future attorney’s-fees ruling the circuit court might make after entry of a judgment upon remand. See Ark. R. Civ. P. 54(e), Rpt. Notes 1997.