Court Opinion

ID: 9733653
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 17:13:10.352242+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:43.154386
License: Public Domain

John Mauzy Pittman, Judge, concurring. I think that this case should have been certified to the Arkansas Supreme Court because it presents questions involving the interpretation or construction of rules promulgated by that court. However, this court declined to do so, and therefore I will vote in the case. On the merits of the issues, I agree with the majority opinion that there was no evidence of clerical misprision in this case and that, in any event, problems relating to lack of notice that an order has been entered are governed by Ark. R. App. P. — Civ. 4(b)(3). I write separately to point out that this case illustrates the very sort of problems that we unnecessarily cause when we refuse to certify to the supreme court clearly certifiable cases. One judge is critical of our decision in Oak Hill Manor v. Arkansas Health Services Agency, 72 Ark. App. 458, 37 S.W.3d 681 (2001), and appears disinclined to follow it in the future. He essentially argues that Oak Hill Manor has minimal precedential value because it has not been adopted by the supreme court. Several other judges take issue with the majority positions both as to the proper construction to be given Ark. R. App. P. — Civ. 4(b)(3) and Ark. R. Civ. P. 60 and as to the extent of the holding in Oak Hill Manor. To my mind, it is unreasonable to make these arguments unless one is willing to certify the case and allow the supreme court the opportunity to speak on the issue. Moreover, I suggest that all of these problems could have been avoided if in 2001 we had certified the Oak Hill Manor case for the supreme court to declare what its rules were intended to mean, rather than attempting to divine that intention on the basis of cases interpreting analogous, but not identical, federal rules.