Court Opinion

ID: 9853673
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 05:52:05.678012+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:19:59.600549
License: Public Domain

GORDON, Justice
(concurring in part, dissenting in part):
Until this case it was consistently held that once an appeal was perfected the trial court lost jurisdiction in the case and could do nothing other than take care of matters “in furtherance of the appeal”. Application of Lopez, 97 Ariz. 328, 400 P.2d 325 (1965); State v. Rendel, 18 Ariz.App. 201, 501 P.2d 42 (1972). Here the chronology of events was: (1) perfecting of appeal by the state after a disappointing ruling by the judge; (2) a state requested dismissal of the action by the trial court over defendant’s objection. I consider dismissing the case after perfection of the appeal to be something more than “in furtherance of the appeal”. This conduct has the effect of depriving the appellate court of the ability to consider the issues framed by the appeal and is, thus, inconsistent with the appellate court’s powers.
A clear ramification of the majority’s holding is the .encouragement of issue-avoidance after an appeal has been perfected. In civil cases, the practice of permitting the trial court to dismiss claims for relief, whether asserted by complaints, counterclaims, crossclaims or third party complaints, would allow the trial court, on its own initiative or at the request of a party, to prune from the appeal any improper ruling.
It appears by this decision that we are making a special exception to the rule for criminal cases. Although this may be laudable in view of the legislative intent evidenced by § 13-1712 A.R.S., I believe this result should be reached by a change in the appellate rules specifically authorizing the trial court to take additional action after an appeal has been perfected in order to aid any appeal based on one of the circumstances listed in § 13-1712 A.R.S.
I would agree with the majority that it would have been proper for this court to entertain the state’s appeal had the appeal/dismissal chronology been reversed, i. e., the state dismissed the action first and, thereafter, within the appropriate time, appealed the ruling of the trial court suppressing the evidence. Had this been the sequence of events, the fact that we may then have been entertaining a moot appeal is not as problematic for me as leaving the trial court with the ability to reshape issues on appeal by withdrawing certain questions from the appellate court.
In all other respects I concur with the holdings of the majority in this case.