Court Opinion

ID: 9773782
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 17:58:29.658712+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:31:57.325460
License: Public Domain

Annabelle Clinton Imber, Justice, dissenting. I must respectfully dissent because I cannot agree with the majority’s holding that Troutman was properly allowed to prove damages in excess of $50,000. In its original and amended complaints, Troutman alleged that its damages were “undetermined” but “exceed[ed] $10,000.” The majority acknowledges that Ark. R. Civ. P. 8(a), a general rule of pleading that applies to all claims for relief, determines jurisdiction and provides in relevant part that: In claims for unliquidated damage, a demand containing no specified amount of money shall limit recovery to an amount less than required for federal court jurisdiction in diversity of citizenship cases, unless language of the demand indicates that the recovery sought is in excess of such amount. (Emphasis added.) By using the word “shall,” it is clear that the rule is mandatory and not discretionary. King v. State, 322 Ark. 51, 907 S.W.2d 127 (1995); Menard v. City of Carlisle, 309 Ark. 522, 834 S.W.2d 632 (1992). Hence, pursuant to the mandatory language of Rule 8(a), I conclude that Troutman should have been limited to proving damages less than $50,000, which was the amount required for federal diversity jurisdiction at the time of this case. The majority circumvents this result by holding that Rule 8(a) “must be read together with Ark. R. Civ. P. 15(b).” Rule 15(b) provides that: When issues not raised by the pleadings are tried by express or implied consent of the parties, they shall be treated in all respects as if they had been raised in the pleadings. Such amendment of the pleadings as may be necessary to cause them to conform to the evidence and to raise these issues may be made upon motion of any party at any time, even after judgment; but failure so to amend does not affect the result of the trial of these issues. If evidence is objected to at the trial on the ground that it is not within the issues made by the pleadings, the court may allow the pleadings to be amended in its discretion. The court may grant a continuance to enable the objecting party to meet such evidence. I read Rule 15(b) to allow the pleadings to be amended to conform to the evidence in three instances. First, the pleadings may be amended upon a motion. Trout-man made no such motion in this case. Second, the pleadings may be amended by express or implied consent. Interstate did not expressly or impliedly consent to Troutman amending its complaint to assert damages in excess of $50,000. In fact, Interstate expressly objected to such amendment by filing a motion in hmine, renewing the motion at the conclusion of the trial, and by filing a motion for a new trial. Finally, it appears that Rule 15(b) allows the pleadings to be amended upon a court ruling in response to an evidentiary objection. I can only assume that the majority concludes that the trial court’s denial of Interstate’s motion in limine was such a ruling. The majority reasons that this is an equitable result because Troutman asserted in its August 12, 1996 answer to Interstate’s first set of interrogatories that it was demanding $184,950 in damages. I disagree with this conclusion for two reasons. First, on September 10, 1996, only one month after it filed its answers to Interstate’s interrogatories, Troutman filed an amended complaint in which it continued to assert that its damages were undetermined but in excess of $10,000. I do not see how such contradictory assertions can sufficiently put a defendant on notice of the possibility of federal diversity jurisdiction. Second, and more importantly, the majority ignores the broad implications of their holding. In future cases, plaintiffs may wait until the final stages of discovery or possibly well into trial before they assert damages sufficient to invoke federal diversity jurisdiction. At this point in the litigation, it would be highly improbable that a defendant would be willing to assert its right to have the case removed to federal court. Such a result would completely abrogate the policy behind Rule 8(a), which the majority admits is to “prevent a plaintiff from using unliquidated demands to avoid removal of diversity of citizenship cases to federal court.” In sum, the majority’s holding that Rule 8(a) “must be read together with Ark. R. Civ. P. 15(b)” is the death knell of the requirement in Rule 8(a) that jurisdictional issues involving a claim for an unspecified amount of unliquidated damages be promptly determined, i.e., long before trial. Accordingly, I must respectfully dissent. Newbern, J., joins this dissent.