Court Opinion

ID: 9721180
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 08:50:26.715813+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:24:23.807307
License: Public Domain

Tom Glaze, Justice, dissenting. The majority opinion is clearly wrong. This decision now authorizes a procedure which will allow a debt on an account to be bifurcated. Now, a debtor can file a declaratory judgment action to determine, factually, what he or she owes on the account, when another person who also is alleged to owe monies on the account is not made a party to the suit. The debtor, Sherry D. Wilmans, is using a declaratory judgment action to determine what she owes without that other co-debtor, Moreno, being notified or served. Of course, when Wilmans obtains a declaratory judgment, that judgment will bar any action against her in any future suit brought by Sears on the account. In this case, Wilmans claims Moreno is currently living in Mexico, and the State has no personal jurisdiction over her. Wilmans and Moreno were both residents of Arkansas when all of the indebtedness was incurred. Moreno was subject to process under Arkansas law and our rules of civil procedure, but that was not done. Wilmans is offtrack; what is actually a cause of action on an open account, has instead been improperly characterized and labeled a declaratory judgment action. This case can and should be dismissed without prejudice, so that all parties can be served and an action can properly proceed to decide this creditor-debtor, open-account action.