Court Opinion

ID: 9541365
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 16:24:49.959727+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:02:47.631643
License: Public Domain

CAMERON, Justice,
dissenting.
The matter was remanded to the trial court with directions to enter summary judgment against Dowell. I agree that the granting of a motion for summary judgment can be a bar to a later suit on the same cause of action. Union Interchange, Inc. v. Van Aalsburg, 102 Ariz. 461, 432 P.2d 589 (1967), accord El Paso Nat. Gas Co. v. State, 123 Ariz. 219, 599 P.2d 175 (1979), cert. denied 445 U.S. 938, 100 S.Ct. 1331, 63 L.Ed.2d 772 (1980). The judgment, however, is conclusive only as to points “raised by the record” in the motion for summary judgment. Hoff v. City of Mesa, 86 Ariz. 259, 344 P.2d 1013 (1959). If the issues were not raised by the record, another action may be brought to settle a new issue.
The issue of the retroactive application of this statute to Dowell was not considered in Ross v. Superior Court, 128 Ariz. 301, 625 P.2d 890 (1981). Indeed, it could not have been considered as the statute was not changed until after our opinion in that case. Thus, this question was never litigated in the previous case of Ross, supra, and the matter was not “finally adjudicated” for the purposes of the statute. Laws 1981, Ch. 226, § 2, subd. A.
I believe that Dowell has the same rights under the new statute as other litigants similarly situated. The legislature restored a barred remedy, Cooper v. Stevedoring of La., Inc. v. Washington, 556 F.2d 268 (5th Cir.1977), reh. denied 560 F.2d 1023 (1977); Campbell v. Holt, 115 U.S. 620, 6 S.Ct. 209, 29 L.Ed. 483 (1885); Chase Securities Corp. v. Donaldson, 325 U.S. 304, 65 S.Ct. 1137, 89 L.Ed. 1628 (1945), reh. denied 325 U.S. 896, 65 S.Ct. 1561, 89 L.Ed. 2006 (1945), and Dowell is not barred from taking advantage of the statute because of Ross, supra.
The decision of the majority means that every worker who commenced an action against a negligent third party before the two year statute of limitations can be heard by the court, while Dowell, who was instrumental in getting the law changed, may not obtain the same relief that all others similarly situated may enjoy. This is a denial of equal protection of the law, and I therefore dissent.