Court Opinion

ID: 9611769
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 04:00:02.725186+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:39:50.247250
License: Public Domain

LIMBAUGH, Judge,
concurring.
I concur in the majority’s analysis and conclusion on the merits of the case, but I write separately to suggest a different approach to the “final judgment” issue.
Section 512.020, RSMo 1994, governs appeals in civil cases generally and gives a right to appeal to any party “aggrieved” by a final judgment of the trial court. The majority correctly determines that Pulitzer is an aggrieved party because its “attempt to unseal public records in which it has a legal right was denied.” This is tacit recognition that Pulitzer has a corresponding cause of action, ancillary to the underlying receivership, to enforce that legal right.
Before an aggrieved party with an enforceable right may bring an appeal, there must be a final judgment disposing of all issues and all parties in the case. Green v. City of St. Louis, 870 S.W.2d 794, 798 (Mo. banc 1994). The majority holds that the judgment in this case is only a final judgment by resort to section 375.630.4, RSMo 1994. I disagree. Pulitzer intervened for one purpose, to request rescission of the orders holding the SDR’s records in camera. The trial court’s denial of that request is dispositive of the only issue in the case and is conclusive as to all parties, thus satisfying the requirements for a final judgment. The majority’s determination that suits of this sort are not final because the liquidation proceeding is ongoing not only contradicts earlier cases, see Ainsworth v. Dalton, 694 S.W.2d 835 (Mo.App. 1989); Angoff v. Casualty Indemnity Exchange, 963 S.W.2d 258, 262 n. 5 (Mo.App. 1997), but also disregards other appeals from cases brought to contest other issues in this same receivership, see Avidan v. Transit Cas. Co., 20 S.W.3d 521 (Mo. banc 2000); Transit Cas. Co. v. Certain Underwriters at Lloyd’s of London, 963 S.W.2d 392 (Mo.App.1998). These cases all stand for the proposition that a final judgment for purposes of litigation ancillary to the receivership, that is, litigation brought by or against the receivership, is separate and *305independent from the final judgment eventually to be entered regarding the fate of the receivership, itself. The compelling logic of the proposition, which the majority now rejects, is that litigation ancillary to the receivership may be resolved without waiting months and years until the underlying receivership is terminated.
The majority also maintains that the judgment was not final because it was subject to change. By entry of the judgment, however, as opposed to a mere ruling on an issue in the case or an order pertaining to less than all the issues in the case, the trial court made clear that its decision in the case was not subject to change. Indeed, judgment was entered for the very reason that the decision was final, rather than interlocutory. Furthermore, as noted, the trial court’s judgment resolved the only issue in the case and was conclusive as to all parties. That alone makes the judgment final.
A more fundamental problem with the majority’s determination that suits of this sort are not final because the receivership/liquidation proceeding is ongoing and the judgment entered was interlocutory is that the majority overlooks the nature of Pulitzer’s lawsuit. Although Pulitzer is an intervening party in the receivership, Pulitzer’s lawsuit, which sets out a discrete cause of action, is independent of the receivership. Though the lawsuit is ancillary to the receivership, it is not part of the receivership proper. Therefore, it is irrelevant that the receivership itself is ongoing and that rulings regarding the receivership are subject to change. Once the receivership court enters judgment on Pulitzer’s independent lawsuit, the judgment is final for purposes of appeal.
In any event, the majority’s solution to the perceived final judgment problem is to provide Pulitzer a remedy by way of a writ of mandamus, or direct appeal under section 375.630.4. Although Pulitzer may have availed itself of a writ of mandamus, it would not have been precluded from taking a direct appeal in the alternative, if, of course, the final judgment problem had been resolved in its favor. On the other hand, the majority’s reliance on section 375.630.4, RSMo 1994, to establish a “final judgment” is altogether inappropriate.
The majority holds that an appeal lies only as a result of the peculiar appeal provisions in section 375.630.4 relevant to delinquency proceedings. This holding, as I understand the majority’s analysis, is based on a construction of section 375.630.4 that recognizes a new and seemingly unencumbered right to appeal from any decree or judgment in the context of insurance company insolvency proceedings, for any party, including policyholders, shareholders, creditors, claimants, employees, and reinsurers. Tellingly, the parties did not cite this section in their briefs or argument, and presumably they understood, as do I, that the language of the statute does not support such a liberal construction, but rather is limited to the defendant insurance company’s right to appeal.
In context, section 375.630 and its subsections relate back to section 375.570, which provides that insolvency proceedings “shall be commenced by filing a verified petition in the name of the director, as plaintiff, against the insurer, proceeded against as defendant....” Section 375.630 then comes into play, outlining the eviden-tiary effect of “certified copies of the statement made by the defendant, or of reports of examinations of the defendant ...”, which create a rebuttable presumption of the facts regarding the financial condition of the insurance company. Sec. 375.630.1. The court then must decide the case as soon as possible, no later than fifteen days after the presentation of the evidence. *306Sec. 375.630.2. “If the finding be for the defendant, it shall be lawful for the director to appeal the case.” Sec. 375.630.3. The next subpart, the one at issue, states:
If the finding be for the plaintiff, the court shall render such orders, decrees and judgments as are allowed by sections 375.1150 to 375.1246 [which comprise the Insurers Supervision, Rehabilitation and Liquidation Act]. Such decree or judgment shall, for all purposes of an appeal, be considered a final judgment, and the defendant may appeal from the same as in other civil cases....
Sec. 375.630.4. The legislature’s identification' of “the defendant” as the party with the right of appeal removes Pulitzer from the operation of the statute. The defendant is the insurance company that the plaintiff director is examining, sec. 375.570.2, and it is against the defendant insurance company that the court “shall render such orders, decrees and judgments as are allowed by sections 375.1150 to 375.1246.” Even if it can be said that the statute is addressed to defendants other than the insurance company, in no sense is Pulitzer a “defendant” in this case; it is instead a plaintiffiintervenor. Therefore, section 375.630.4 does not provide a basis for Pulitzer’s appeal.
I have one final complaint with the majority’s analysis. The majority’s assertion that no final judgment involving a receivership may be entered unless authorized under section 375.630.4 is based on the premise that the insurance company insolvency code is exclusive, complete, and self-contained. But, if that premise is correct, then the majority improperly relies on section 512.020, which is a source outside the code, to give Pulitzer “aggrieved party” status, which is no less a requirement to perfect the appeal than the requirement for a final judgment. The better analysis is that the insolvency code is not exclusive, complete, and self-contained in relation to lawsuits that are independent of the receivership proper and that section 375.630.4 is not the exclusive authority for a final judgment in such cases. In fact, that analysis is required under section 375.600.1, which states: “The pleadings and proceedings, insofar as not otherwise regulated by sections 375.570 to 375.750, 375.950 to 375.990 and 375.1150 to 375.1246, shall be as in other civil causes.”
In sum, I would hold that the judgment entered against Pulitzer was a final judgment for the sole reason that it disposed of the only issue in the case and was conclusive as to all parties.