Court Opinion

ID: 9796153
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 03:50:29.780635+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:48:23.130093
License: Public Domain

BREWER, C. J.,
dissenting.
I agree with the majority that plaintiffs motion for reconsideration and reinstatement of his appeal raises the single issue of whether a judgment that is nonappealable because of the pendency of a timely filed motion for new trial or judgment notwithstanding the verdict (JNOV) is nevertheless enforceable. Like the majority, I would grant reconsideration, but, unlike the majority, I would hold that a judgment that temporarily is nonappealable because of the pendency of a motion for new trial and motion for JNOV also is unenforceable. Accordingly, I would reaffirm the order of dismissal.
The majority and I agree on two fundamental propositions. First, we agree that the filing of defendant’s motion for a new trial or JNOV rendered the judgment in this case nonappealable until either the trial court entered an order disposing of the motion or the motion was deemed denied by operation of law. See, e.g., Welker v. TSPC, 332 Or 306, 312-13, 27 P3d 1038 (2001). Second, we agree that ORS 18.082(1) describes the effects of the entry of a judgment, including that a properly entered judgment may be appealed and enforced “in the manner provided by law.”1 However, in my *524view, the majority errs by adopting plaintiffs argument that the text and context of ORS 18.082(1) compel the conclusion that a nonappealable judgment can, in the present circumstances, be enforced.
In Gull Industries v. Mustang Gas and Oil Co., 73 Or App 557, 699 P2d 1134, rev den, 299 Or 583 (1985), this court considered a similar question. In that case, the trial court entered judgment for the plaintiff on its claims but failed to address the defendant’s counterclaims. After the entry of the judgment, the plaintiff issued a writ of garnishment to the defendant’s bank. The bank refused to make payment on the writ and, instead, asserted that the judgment was not final under former ORS 18.125 (1979), repealed by Or Laws 1981, ch 898, § 53. The bank argued that the lack of finality rendered the writ of garnishment unenforceable. We upheld the bank’s defense, concluding that a writ of garnishment could not lawfully be issued to enforce a nonfinal judgment.
Plaintiff argues that the reasoning in Gull Industries is not controlling here because, unlike the nonfinal judgment in that case, the judgment in tins case disposed of all claims.2 Plaintiff asserts that the writ of garnishment in Gull Industries was unenforceable because the underlying judgment was not conclusive, but here, the judgment conclusively disposed of all claims in the action. Plaintiff contends that it does not follow that, merely because a judgment is nonappealable for some reason — here because a motion for new trial or JNOV rendered the judgment temporarily nonappealable — it is not enforceable.3
*525In my view, plaintiffs argument misses the point that the filing of the motion threatened the conclusiveness of the judgment. If the motion were granted, the judgment would no longer have memorialized the trial court’s previous disposition of the case and, ultimately, a new judgment would have issued in the case. For that reason, it is perfectly understandable that the legislature would provide that a judgment is not appealable while a motion for new trial or JNOV remains pending. However, it makes little sense to conclude that the legislature intended for a temporarily nonappealable judgment to be enforceable.
True enough, ORS 18.082(1) provides that a judgment is both enforceable and appealable as "provided by law,” thereby arguably creating the possibility of separate legal requirements for appealability and enforceability. And, of course, there are circumstances where an appealable judgment, at least temporarily, cannot be fully enforced, for example, when the appellant files a supersedeas undertaking. ORS 19.335. It is also elementary that, in order to perfect an appeal, a nonprevailing party must timely file a notice of appeal and satisfy other statutory requirements that exist independently of provisions of law that govern the enforcement of judgments. However, the fact that, in order to perfect an appeal from a judgment, a nonprevailing party must satisfy such requirements does not mean that the judgment is nonappealable. Plaintiff cites no provision of law, and I am aware of none, that authorizes the enforcement of a nonappealable judgment. Significantly, ORS 18.082(1) lists the effects of a judgment, including appealability, in the conjunctive. Multiple statutory requirements stated in the conjunctive generally must coexist to create a defined circumstance. See, e.g., Grijalva v. Safeco Ins. Co., 153 Or App 144, 156, 956 P2d 995 (1998), rev’d on other grounds, 329 Or 36, 985 P2d *526784 (1999) (where legislature used conjunctive to describe statutory requirements for attorney fee recovery, all must be met for recovery to occur).
It follows that ORS 18.082(1) plausibly can be interpreted to mean that a judgment cannot be enforced unless it also is, subject to statutory perfection requirements, appeal-able. That being so, it is appropriate to examine the legislative history of the statute to confirm, if possible, its meaning. ORS 18.082 was enacted from House Bill (HB) 2646 in the 2003 Legislative Assembly. HB 2646 was the product of the Oregon Law Commission’s Judgments Work Group. The Work Group prepared a report that accompanied HB 2646. Regarding what became codified as ORS 18.082(1), the report stated:
“Subsection (1) makes general statements about the effect of entry of a judgment. The most important of these statements is that upon entry, a judgment can be appealed and enforced. This provision is consistent with one of the Work Group’s fundamental decisions: There should never be ‘judgments’ that are entered in the register but that are not appealable and enforceable.”
Biennial Report of the Oregon Law Commission, 2001-2003, Appendix O, Judgments Report at 14. (Emphasis added.) The legislative history of ORS 18.082(1) thus supports the view that judgments must be both enforceable, subject to legal limits such as stays, and appealable, subject to legal requirements for the perfection of appeals.
I acknowledge that a judgment generally is both appealable and enforceable between the date of its entry and the date of filing of a motion for new trial or JNOV. I also recognize that the filing of a notice of appeal does not deprive the trial court of jurisdiction to enforce the judgment. ORS 19.270(l)(b). Moreover, I agree that it is, to say the least, awkward that a judgment that was enforceable when entered would become at least temporarily unenforceable upon the filing of a motion for a new trial or JNOV. Finally, I concede that, if my conclusion is correct, a judgment debtor, by filing a motion for new trial or JNOV, could obtain a reprieve from enforcement of the judgment for up to 55 days *527from the date of entry of judgment without providing any security for the judgment creditor.4
I nonetheless would conclude that, during a period of nonappealabilty, the legislature did not intend for a judgment to be enforceable. Under ORCP 72, a trial court has authority to stay enforcement of a judgment while a motion for new trial or JNOV is pending. However, if a judgment is made temporarily nonappealable by the filing of such a motion, the judgment debtor would be at the judgment creditor’s mercy should the trial court refuse to stay enforcement of the judgment. Such a judgment debtor would have no recourse to this court, but could be forced to satisfy a judgment during a period of up to 55 days after the date of entry of judgment. It is apparent from the text and the legislative history of ORS 18.082(1) that the legislature did not contemplate such an inherently unfair circumstance. I therefore would hold that the judgment in this case was not enforceable while it remained nonappealable pending the trial court’s determination of the motion for new trial or JNOV. Thus, on reconsideration, I would affirm our previous dismissal of plaintiffs appeal from the order sustaining defendant’s objections to the writ of garnishment.
I respectfully dissent.

 ORS 18.082 provides, in part:
“(1) Upon entry of a judgment, the judgment:
“(a) Becomes the exclusive statement of the court’s decision in the case and governs the rights and obligations of the parties that are subject to the judgment;
*524“(b) May be enforced in the manner provided by law;
“(c) May be appealed in the manner provided by law;
“(d) Acts as official notice of the court’s decision; and “(e) May be set aside or modified only by the court rendering the judgment or by another court or tribunal with the same or greater authority than the court rendering the judgment.”

 In the context of judgments, “final” can mean that the trial court has decided all claims and therefore the judgment memorializing the decision is ripe for enforcement and appeal, or it can mean that all opportunities for appeal have been exhausted. ORS 18.005(8) defines a “judgment,” in part, as “the concluding decision of a court” to signal that the judgment is enforceable and appealable, but not “final” in the sense that no appeal or further appeal may be taken from the judgment. (Emphasis added.)

 In Frank v. Matthiesen, 116 Or 94, 100, 240 P 551 (1925), the Supreme Court, in addressing a different issue — whether an appeal from an original judgment, not *525taken until five days after entry of judgment reversing order granting a new trial, would be dismissed as not within time the required by law — opined that the filing of a motion for a new trial did not of itself suspend the effect of an underlying judgment and that the judgment creditor “was entitled to execution from the date of the judgment until the motion for a new trial was granted.” That case is not controlling here. It involved the construction of a long-repealed statute, not ORS 18.082, it did not follow any currently cognizable statutory construction methodology, and it did not grapple with the nonappealability of a judgment while a new trial motion is pending.

 The period in question could be up to 55 days if a judgment debtor took up to the tenth day following entry of judgment to file a motion for new trial or JNOV, and the trial court suffered the motion to be denied by operation of law by the passage of 55 days from the date of entry of judgment. See ORCP 63 D; ORCP 64 F.