Court Opinion

ID: 9850603
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 04:59:50.992681+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:20:40.219848
License: Public Domain

BISTLINE, Justice,
specially concurring.
The majority holds the district court did not abuse its discretion in denying attorneys fees and costs even though the trial judge “focused on whether Newbold was a prevailing party rather than on whether the dismissal should include an award of costs and attorneys fees, or either, under I.R.C.P. 41(a)(2).” We should hold that the trial court was not required to consider the effect of I.R.C.P. 41(a)(2) because that theory was not before it.
*337Whether the district court properly exercised its discretion under I.R.C.P. 41(a)(2) need not be addressed because that issue was not properly preserved for appeal. As far as one can tell from the record before this Court, the appellant never argued below that she was entitled to recover under that rule. Instead, she claimed attorneys fees and costs under I.R.C.P. 54(d)(1)(B), I.C. § 12-120(1), and I.R.C.P. 68. Thus, it is not surprising that the trial judge failed to focus on the correct legal standard. The appellant did not pursue that theory below.
The majority, however, distorts the abuse of discretion standard by holding the trial court did not abuse its discretion even though it did not apply the correct legal standard. It is inappropriate to conclude under the criteria set forth in Sun Valley Shopping Center v. Idaho Power, 119 Idaho 87, 94, 803 P.2d 993, 1000 (1991), that a trial court does not err where it fails to apply the correct rule of law. A court cannot act consistently with the legal standards applicable to the specific choices available to it, unless it has first identified the correct legal standard.
Thus, the proper resolution of the I.R.C.P. 41(a)(2) issue would be to hold the issue has not been preserved by appellant. It is well established that this Court will not consider issues raised for the first time on appeal, unless they concern jurisdiction, are of constitutional magnitude, or argue the failure to state a claim upon which relief may be granted. Nycum v. Triangle Dairy Co., 109 Idaho 858, 862, 712 P.2d 559, 563 (1985). None of those exceptions to the general rule are applicable here.
The trial court properly ruled on the issues actually presented to it and its ruling should be affirmed on only that narrow basis.