Court Opinion

ID: 9767509
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 05:20:47.443601+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:30:31.530928
License: Public Domain

Tom Glaze, Justice, dissenting. I respectfully dissent. I strongly disagree with this court’s attempt to distinguish the recent case of Haile v. Arkansas Power & Light Co., 322 Ark. 29, 907 S.W.2d 122 (1995). As I understand the majority opinion, it states the Haile case involved a nonsuit of one of several claims against a party and the party nonsuiting intended later to refile the nonsuited claim, giving rise to possible piecemeal appeals. The majority opinion then relates that the rationale causing dismissal in cases of nonsuiting one of multiple claims against a single party (like in Haile) differs from the case (like the present one) dismissing one of multiple parties. This suggested difference is based on the fact that, where a plaintiff has a number of claims against a single party, the doctrine of res judicata will bar issues which could have been litigated between them but were not. On the other hand, where the dismissal of one of multiple parties occurs, the majority suggests the dismissal leaves all parties in the same positions, since nothing requires a plaintiff to sue the prospective defendants simultaneously. My reluctance to join the majority court’s rationale and distinction between nonsuiting one claim of multiple claims from one party of multiple parties in the context of Rule 54(b) is the court’s failure to recognize that plaintiffs must often sue and join all party defendants in one lawsuit. See Ark. Civ. P. Rule 19(a) and Yamauchi v. Bank/Central South, 309 Ark. 532, 832 S.W.2d 241 (1992). In addition and most important, I point out that this court has held that the fundamental policy of Rule 54(b) is to avoid piecemeal appeals and that an order of dismissal of one party or one claim from a multi-party, multi-claim lawsuit may be granted when the trial court directs the entry of a final judgment as to one or more of the claims or parties and makes express findings that there is no just reason to delay the appeal. General Motors Acceptance Corp. v. Eubanks, 318 Ark. 640, 887 S.W.2d 292 (1994). Here, the appellant failed to produce a record on appeal showing the jurisdictional requirements of Rule 54(b). In sum, today’s majority decision simply ignores the simple language of Rule 54(b). All things considered, I believe the distinction that the majority court attempts to draw between dismissing claims and parties in the Rule 54(b) context will be confusing and difficult to apply in future cases. Accordingly, I believe this case is controlled by Rule 54(b) and should be dismissed, as was done in Haile. A litigant’s attempt to nonsuit parties and claims to obtain a final order circumvents the intent and dictates of Rule 54(b) and should not be condoned. I would add that, while this Rule 54(b) and jurisdiction issue was not joined in the Bryant case, I think we erred there in accepting jurisdiction and proceeding to rule on the merits of the case.