Court Opinion

ID: 9732966
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 16:46:32.549005+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:26:59.522358
License: Public Domain

Annabelle Clinton Imber, Justice, concurring. I concur with the result reached in this case because I agree that our regulatory duty under Amendment 28 to the Arkansas Constitution mandates our holding set forth in the majority opinion: “Where a party not licensed to practice law in this state attempts to represent the interests of others by submitting himself or herself to jurisdiction of a court, those actions such as the filings of pleadings, are rendered a nullity.” I write separately to voice the same concerns that I expressed in St. Paul Mercury Ins. Co. v. Circuit Court of Craighead County, 01-1311 (April 11, 2002) (Imber, J., concurring). The federal appellate courts have construed Rules 15(c) and 17(a) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure to permit relation back of amendments to pleadings adding entirely new plaintiffs under circumstances that do not evince a tactical or strategic decision, but rather, an understandable and excusable mistake. See Advanced Magnetics, Inc., v. Bayfront Partners, Inc., 106 F.3d 11 (2d Cir. 1997); Scheufler v. General Host Corp., 126 F.3d 1261 (10th Cir. 1997); Crowder v. Gordons Transports, Inc., 387 F.2d 413 (8th Cir. 1967). The Arkansas survival wrongful-death statutes, respectively codified at Ark. Code Ann. §§ 16-42-101 and 16-42-102 (Supp. 2001), provide very clear and precise language delineating the proper party to bring suit. In the instant case, the attorney’s instruction to his clients to file pro se and his failure to sign the pleading cannot be condoned as an understandable mistake. The appellants’ conduct in this case was in fact a deliberate and tactical choice.