Court Opinion

ID: 9748790
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-27 16:13:09.441839+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:25:39.423043
License: Public Domain

R AY THORNTON, Justice, dissenting. Because the majority opinion completely ignores the principles of separation of powers, and chooses to arbitrarily apply the doctrine oí law ol the case, I must respectfully dissent. While the majority opinion is correct that Arkansas has never had an opportunity to consider the implications of an intervening legislative enactment on the law of the case in a pending legal action, other jurisdictions have encountered this situation and have determined that the law of the case doctrine does not apply. Specifically, in Reich v. Miller, 260 Iowa 929, 151 N.W.2d 605 (1967), the Iowa Supreme Court held: [T]he doctrine of the law of the case has been held to have no application where, in the interval between the two appeals, there has been a change in the law by legislative enaction or judicial ruling. Id. See also Jordon v. Jordon. 132 Ariz. 38, 643 P.2d 1008 (1982). The Supreme Court of Utah, agreeing with Iowa and Arizona, acknowledged that: the law of the case doctrine does not apply to a case where the policy of the law has been changed in the meantime by a legislative enactment, in a case where the amended provision deals only with procedure rather than with making a change in substantive law[.] Petty v. Clark, 113 Utah 205, 192 P.2d 589 (1948). In Petty, the Utah Court also explained that “an extensive research has failed to disclose any case where any court has held that the law of the case doctrine applies to this kind of a situation.” Id. (emphasis added). Unfortunately, pursuant to the majority opinion, Arkansas will fill the gap in the case law as the only state in which a court chooses to ignore a legislative enactment changing the guidelines for implementation of the policy of the law between two appeals both of which were grounded upon the public policy as established by the legislature. Applying the doctrine of law of the case to the case now on review forces an absurd result that is contrary to the case law of other jurisdictions. In the first appeal of this case, we determined that the trial court had erred in dismissing Mrs. Jackson’s cause of action against Cadillac Cowboy pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6) of the Arkansas Rules of Civil Procedure. Jackson v. Cadillac Cowboy, Inc., 337 Ark. 24, 986 S.W.2d 410 (1999) Jackson I). After reviewing several regulatory statutes, we determined that the legislature intended to reverse at least thirty-four years of judicial interpretation of the common law and to establish a cause of action for negligence which could be pursued by Mrs. Jackson against Cadillac Cowboy. Id. Based upon these regulatory statutes, we concluded that a vendor licensed to serve alcoholic beverages could be subjected to civil liability for negligence when that sale was to an intoxicated person who then causes injury to a third party. Id. After reaching this conclusion, we declined to specifically articulate standards or guidelines for pursing the of cause of action. Id. Indeed, the matter before us for decision in Jackson I was an Ark. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6) motion testing only whether such a cause of action had been created by regulatory statutes adopted by the legislature. Approximately one month after our decision in Jackson I, the General Assembly enacted Act 1596 of 1999. The Act, which was codified at Ark. Code Ann. § 16-126-101, et seq. (Supp. 2001), stated that it intended to clarify and establish the legislative intent regarding the sale of alcoholic beverages as addressed by our court in Shannon v. Wilson, 329 Ark. 143, 947 S.W.2d 349 (1997) and Jackson I. Act 1596 legislatively identified a civil cause of action that may be brought against a retailer who knowingly sells alcoholic beverages to a person who is clearly intoxicated when that sale is the proximate cause of injuries to a third person. Act 1596 was the General Assembly’s response to our interpretation of its regulatory statutes, and its attempt to clarify and mandate guidelines and procedures to be followed in such cases. Specifically, the General Assembly, acting within its legislative powers, chose to specify a framework for the cause of action articulated by us in Jackson I on the basis of regulatory statutes previously adopted by the legislature. Act 1596 expressed a change in the regulations and guidelines for implementation of the policy of the law as established by the legislature for the State of Arkansas. For us to thereafter refuse to apply the legislative directives is violative of the principles of separation of powers. By applying the law-of-the-case doctrine to the facts of this case, and ignoring the subsequent legislative enactment, we are acting as lawmakers instead of interpreters of the law. I respectfully dissent. I am authorized to state that Justice CORBIN joins in this dissent.