Aragon v. Westside Jeep/Eagle
| Decision Date | 26 May 1994 |
| Docket Number | No. 21495,21495 |
| Citation | 117 N.M. 720,1994 NMSC 60,876 P.2d 235 |
| Parties | Johnny ARAGON and Irene Aragon, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. WESTSIDE JEEP/EAGLE, Valley National Financial Services, and Chrysler Corporation, Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | New Mexico Supreme Court |
Plaintiffs-Appellants, Johnny and Irene Aragon (the "Aragons"), appeal from a district court order denying their motion to set aside the dismissal of their case against Defendants-Appellees, Westside Jeep/Eagle ("Westside Jeep"), Valley National Financial Services ("Valley National"), and Chrysler Corporation ("Chrysler"). On appeal, we address whether the district court erred by denying the Aragons' motion. We review this case pursuant to SCRA 1986, 12-102(A)(1) (Repl.Pamp.1992), and reverse and remand for further proceedings.
On March 16, 1992, the Aragons purchased a used vehicle from Westside Jeep. The Aragons brought the vehicle back to Westside Jeep fifteen days later, complaining that the vehicle would occasionally fail to restart after being turned off. After examining the vehicle, Westside Jeep claimed that there was no discernible problem. Chrysler, which had issued a service contract on the vehicle at the time of purchase, advised the Aragons that any existing problem was not covered under the contract.
On September 17, 1992, the Aragons filed a complaint for breach of warranty in the sales and service contracts against Westside Jeep, Chrysler, and Valley National. 1 Pursuant to a local district court rule that requires that all cases be referred to arbitration where no party seeks relief other than a money judgment in an amount not in excess of fifteen thousand dollars, see SCRA 1986, Sec. 10A-LR2-603(II)(A) (Repl.Pamp.1993) (hereinafter "LR2-603( ...)") (providing for court-annexed arbitration), the Aragons filed a certification with their complaint stating that they met the conditions of the local rule and were subject to referral for arbitration. See LR2-603(II)(B) (requiring that a party file concurrently with certain pleadings a certification indicating whether the party is or is not seeking relief other than a money judgment in excess of $15,000).
On December 7, 1992, the district court entered an order referring the case to court-annexed arbitration under LR2-603. January 20, 1993, the district court entered an order appointing an arbitrator. The arbitration hearing was held on April 12, 1993. The arbitrator decided against the Aragons and awarded them no damages. The arbitrator filed the arbitration award on April 29, 1993. The Aragons filed a notice of appeal from the arbitration award on May 18, 1993. On June 14, 1993, the district court entered an order quashing the Aragons' notice of appeal and adopting the arbitration award as the final judgment of the court. The district court quashed the notice of appeal because the notice was not timely filed.
On June 29, 1993, the Aragons filed a motion to set aside the district court's order dismissing their appeal under SCRA 1986, 1-060(B)(1) (Repl.Pamp.1992) ("Rule 60(B)(1)") ( that the district court may relieve a party from a final judgment or order for "mistake, inadvertence, surprise or excusable neglect"). In their motion, the Aragons conceded that their notice of appeal was not timely filed, but maintained that their failure to timely file the notice was due to "clerical difficulty" on the part of their attorney's paralegal and that this "clerical difficulty" constituted mistake, inadvertence, or excusable neglect. 2 In arguing that relief should be granted under Rule 60(B)(1), the Aragons claimed that the failure to timely file a notice of appeal from an arbitration decision does not deprive the district court of jurisdiction to hear the case.
Both Valley National and Westside Jeep filed responses to the Aragons' motion to set aside the dismissal of their case. Valley National and Westside Jeep argued that Rule 60(B) cannot be used to extend the time for appeal, particularly under LR2-603(VI)(B)(1), which requires that the notice of appeal from an arbitration award be filed within fifteen days and states that "[t]he period for filing the notice shall not be extended." CitingRivera v. King, 108 N.M. 5, 765 P.2d 1187 (Ct.App.), cert. denied, 107 N.M. 785, 765 P.2d 758 (1988) and State v. Brinkley, 78 N.M. 39, 428 P.2d 13 (1967), Valley National argued that "the timely filing of a notice of appeal is jurisdictional" and that "[a] court lacks jurisdiction to entertain an appeal when the notice ... is filed even so much as one day late." Finally, Valley National and Westside Jeep argued that even if the district court were to apply Rule 60(B)(1), the circumstances alleged by the Aragons failed to constitute excusable neglect.
The district court held a hearing on the Aragons' motion on July 26, 1993. At this hearing the Aragons reiterated their argument that the order dismissing their case for failure to timely file a notice of appeal should be set aside under Rule 60(B)(1) for inadvertence and excusable neglect. Valley National argued that Rule 60(B) does not apply to this case but that, even if it applied, the Aragons failed to show sufficient grounds to set aside the judgment. Westside Jeep argued that LR2-603(VI)(B)(1) required notice to be filed within fifteen days and expressly stated that no extensions were allowed. Westside Jeep also argued that the Aragons' failure to timely file notice did not constitute excusable neglect or inadvertence under Rule 60(B)(1).
After hearing the arguments, the district court urged the parties to settle the case by the end of the day. The court stated that a decision on the Aragons' motion would issue if the parties could not settle the case. The parties failed to settle their case. On August 18, 1993, the district court issued an order that denied the Aragons' motion without explanation. The Aragons appeal the district court's order to this Court.
On appeal, we address whether the district court erred by denying the Aragons' motion to set aside its order dismissing their case. In this case, neither the August 18th order nor the record proper reveals the district court's grounds for denying the Aragons' Rule 60(B) motion. We are concerned that the court did not rule on the merits of the Aragons' Rule 60(B) motion, but instead agreed with Valley National and Westside Jeep that it had lost jurisdiction to consider the motion because the Aragons' notice of appeal was not timely filed. We do not agree that ...
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