Court Opinion

ID: 9858795
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 16:41:32.286325+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:56:01.776529
License: Public Domain

NEUMANN, Justice,
concurring in result.
I concur in the result. I would not, however, impose a requirement for a Rule 54(b) certification on an appeal from an order granting or denying a change of venue. I would simply hold that such an interlocutory order is not appealable.
I would not impose a Rule 54(b) requirement because Rule 54(b), closely read, applies only to cases in which there are multiple parties or multiple claims for relief, and in which the trial court is able to direct entry of a final judgment as to one or more but fewer than all of the claims. In the present case, the defendant has asserted no counterclaims against the plaintiffs, so the only claims in the case are those alleged in the plaintiffs’ complaint. None of those claims has been resolved by the trial court’s order changing venue. Indeed, no claim of a party in a lawsuit could ever be resolved by a venue order. And obviously no final judgment could ever be entered on the basis of a venue order. Consequently, a Rule 54(b) certification can never be properly made for a venue order.
I would, instead, overrule a long line of cases reaching back to White v. Chicago, M. & St.P. R. Co., 5 Dak. 508, 41 N.W. 730 (1889), which hold that an order relating to change of venue is one which “involves the merits of the action” and is therefore appeal-able under what is currently section 28-27-02(5), NDCC. [“The following orders when made by the court may be carried to the supreme court.... An order which involves the merits of an action or some part thereof.”] Contrary to the ruling in the White case and those which have followed it, an order granting or denying a change of venue has absolutely nothing to do with the merits of the case or any part of the merits. “Merits” are “the substance, elements or grounds of a cause of action or defense.” Black’s Law Dictionary 989-90 (6th Ed.1990). “An order involves the merits of the litigation only if it is dispositive of a substantive issue.” Fritz v. Hassan, 316 N.W.2d 797, 799 (N.D. 1982) [regarding an order denying a motion for judgment by default]. Orders involving procedural matters such as place of trial do not involve the “merits.” I would therefore overrule White and the cases which have followed it, despite the longevity of its holding.
MESCHKE, J., concurs.