Court Opinion

ID: 9517824
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 00:34:14.997298+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:16:17.304664
License: Public Domain

Hill, J.,
dissenting. I must dissent. The majority’s holding that jurisdiction is determined at the time of trial rather than when the pleadings are filed is patently incorrect law. LaMantia v. King, 129 Vt. 628, 285 A.2d 741 (1971), which this Court improperly overrules today, states the longstanding and correct rule that the nature of a case is determined by the pleadings, so that a complaint or answer that raises an equitable issue “stamps the action as one in equity.” 27 Am. Jur. 2d Equity § 7; see Van Allen v. New York Elevated Railroad, 144 N.Y. 174, 38 N.E. 997 (1894). Moreover, “equitable jurisdiction must be determined by the conditions existing at the time the suit is filed, and not by conditions which come into existence after the commencement of the suit.” 27 Am. Jur. 2d Equity § 8, at 526 (emphasis added) (citing Busch v. Jones, 184 U.S. 598, 599-600 (1902)). Finally, it is an established rule of law that once equitable jurisdiction attaches, it must retain jurisdiction and must dispose of the entire matter. North Chicago Rolling Mill Co. v. St. Louis Ore & Steel Co., 152 U.S. 596, 612 (1894); J. Eaton, Handbook of Equity Jurisprudence § 10 (2d ed. 1923).
The pleadings in this case involved two actions for foreclosure, an affirmative defense of estoppel, and a counterclaim for a permanent injunction. All of these requests, as the majority admits, are equitable in nature. Therefore, equitable jurisdiction was invoked. Under this Court’s holding in Soucy v. Soucy Motors, Inc., 143 Vt. 615, 471 A.2d 224 (1983), only a presiding judge, and not the assistant judges, may hear equitable cases. Id. at 620, 471 A.2d at 226.* “The presence of even one assistant judge [in a case involving an equitable matter is] reversible error, since the court, as constituted, had no jurisdiction to hear the case.” Id. at 620, *515471 A.2d at 227. The assistant judges participated throughout this case; therefore, under Soucy, the case should be remanded for a new trial before a properly constituted court.
Since I would hold that, under Soucy, the lower court as constituted had no jurisdiction to hear this case, I would remand for a new trial before a properly constituted court. Therefore, I would not reach the issues reached by the majority in Part II.

 Under legislation recently enacted by the legislature, 4 V.S.A. § 111(a) and § 219, assistant judges may participate in cases involving equitable issues. These statutes do not affect this case, however, since the appeal was pending prior to the passage of the legislation.