Bilke v. State

• Decision Date: 04 December 2003
• Docket Number: No. CV-03-0034-PR.,CV-03-0034-PR.
• Citation: 206 Ariz. 462,80 P.3d 269
• Parties: Mitchell Paul BILKE; Charles Robert; Kenneth Ashelman; Felton Hale; Richard S. Berry; Mervin L. Davis and Damon D. Fisher, individually and as members of a class, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. STATE of Arizona; Arcor Enterprises, a subdivision of the State; Arizona Correctional Industries, a subdivision of the State, Defendants-Appellants.
• Court: Arizona Supreme Court

80 P.3d 269

206 Ariz. 462

Mitchell Paul BILKE; Charles Robert; Kenneth Ashelman; Felton Hale; Richard S. Berry; Mervin L. Davis and Damon D. Fisher, individually and as members of a class, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. STATE of Arizona; Arcor Enterprises, a subdivision of the State; Arizona Correctional Industries, a subdivision of the State, Defendants-Appellants.

No. CV-03-0034-PR.

Supreme Court of Arizona, En Banc.

December 4, 2003.

Terry Goddard, Arizona Attorney General by Daniel P. Schaack, Assistant Attorney General, Phoenix, Attorneys for Defendants-Appellants.

Michael E. St. George, Tempe, Attorney for Plaintiffs-Appellees.

OPINION

RYAN, Justice.

¶ 1 In Arizona, "an interlocutory judgment which determines the rights of the parties and directs an accounting or other proceeding to determine the amount of the recovery" may be appealed. Ariz.Rev.Stat. ("A.R.S.") § 12-2101(G) (2003). We granted review to resolve a conflict between two decisions of the court of appeals as to the proper interpretation of the phrase "accounting or other proceeding to determine the amount of the recovery." We hold that interlocutory judgments can be appealed under § 12-2101(G) when the trial judge has signed an order that contains language indicating that the judgment is a final determination of the rights of the parties and the only remaining issue is the amount of recovery. We also hold that appeals under § 12-2101(G) are not limited to cases in which an accounting or similar equitable proceeding has been ordered to determine the amount of recovery. We have jurisdiction under Article 6, Section 5(3), of the Arizona Constitution, A.R.S. § 12-120.24 (2003), and Rule 23 of the Arizona Rules of Civil Appellate Procedure.

I.

¶ 2 Plaintiffs filed the original complaint in this case in 1988, challenging the wages they were paid while incarcerated. Plaintiffs were employed either by Arizona Correctional Enterprises, Inmate Operated Business Enterprises, or by privately owned companies. See Bilke v. State, 189 Ariz. 133, 134-35, 938 P.2d 1134, 1135-36 (App.1997). The trial court ruled that any plaintiff who worked for a private company was entitled to receive the minimum wage. Id. at 135, 938 P.2d at 1136. The State did not challenge this ruling. Id. at 136, 938 P.2d at 1137.

¶ 3 In 2000, the superior court granted plaintiffs permission to file a second amended complaint to add inmates who worked at a coupon-processing plant in Winslow. The complaint also sought class certification, which the trial court granted.

¶ 4 Both sides then filed motions for summary judgment. Citing the first trial court's ruling that inmates who worked under a contract with a private entity on prison grounds were entitled to receive the minimum wage, see id., plaintiffs sought summary judgment solely on liability. Because the Winslow plant had closed in 1998, the State argued that the one-year statute of limitations had run on the claim. See A.R.S. § 12-821 (2003) ("All actions against any public entity or public employee shall be brought within one year after the cause of action accrues and not afterward."). Plaintiffs countered that their claim related back to the filing of the original complaint under Rule 15(c) of the Arizona Rules of Civil Procedure.¹ The trial court agreed with plaintiffs, finding that the claims related back to the original complaint. The court then granted partial summary judgment on liability.

¶ 5 The State subsequently requested that the court enter a judgment "with finality language, so that it could immediately appeal." The court granted the request on the condition that the form of judgment contain language stating:

[T]he judgment resolves the parties' rights as to liability and [ ] the State is liable for the minimum wage if the Statute of Limitations has not been violated. The only unresolved question is the amount of recovery.

The court eventually signed a judgment that incorporated the above language.

¶ 6 The State appealed, citing A.R.S. § 12-2101(G) and Cook v. Cook, 26 Ariz.App. 163, 547 P.2d 15 (1976), as the basis for jurisdiction. Cook held that a summary judgment solely on the issue of liability could be appealed under § 12-2101(G) when the only question remaining was the amount of damages, and the trial court, in the exercise of its discretion, entered an interlocutory judgment with express language determining that an appeal should lie under § 12-2101(G). Id. at 168, 547 P.2d at 20.

¶ 7 The court of appeals reversed, holding that under the facts, Rule 15(c) did not permit plaintiffs' second amended complaint to relate back to the original complaint. Bilke v. State, 1 CA-CV 01-0601, ¶ 16 (Ariz.App. Oct. 15, 2002) (mem.decision). The court remanded the matter to the trial court with directions for it "to grant the State's motion for summary judgment on the statute of limitations issue." Id.

¶ 8 Plaintiffs petitioned this court for review. While the petition was pending, another panel of the court of appeals concluded that Cook was wrongly decided and that A.R.S. § 12-2101(G) permits interlocutory review only of those rare cases in which the superior court, after determining liability, orders an accounting or similar equitable proceeding, such as "a tracing to enforce a constructive trust." Mezey v. Fioramonti, 204 Ariz. 599, 602-04, ¶¶ 4, 7-15, 65 P.3d 980, 983-85 (App.2003).²

¶ 9 The State alerted this court and plaintiffs' counsel to the Mezey decision. Plaintiffs then filed a supplemental petition for review, urging that the court of appeals decision be vacated because it lacked jurisdiction to hear the appeal. We granted review to resolve the conflict between Cook and Mezey as to when A.R.S. § 12-2101(G) permits an interlocutory appeal.

II.

¶ 10 "[A]bsent a pertinent provision in the Arizona Constitution, the right of appeal exists only by statute." Musa v. Adrian, 130 Ariz. 311, 312, 636 P.2d 89, 90 (1981). Although "[p]ublic policy is ... against piecemeal appeals," id., A.R.S. § 12-2101(G) permits an appeal of an interlocutory judgment when the only issue left to be determined is the amount of recovery, whether through "an accounting or other proceeding." Cook did not limit the phrase "other proceeding" to equitable proceedings. 26 Ariz.App. at 167, 547 P.2d at 19. Mezey, on the other hand, concluded that the term "other proceeding" must be strictly limited to equitable proceedings because if it were not so limited, the "general rule of finality" would be swallowed and "the routine civil case in which liability alone has been determined" would be immediately appealable. 204 Ariz. at 605, ¶ 20, 65 P.3d at 986. We review this question of statutory interpretation de novo. Canon Sch. Dist. No. 50 v. W.E.S. Constr. Co., 177 Ariz. 526, 529, 869 P.2d 500, 503 (1994).

A.

¶ 11 Principles of statutory interpretation guide our analysis. The court's chief goal in interpreting a statute is "to fulfill the intent of the legislature that wrote it." State v. Williams, 175 Ariz. 98, 100, 854 P.2d 131, 133 (1993). In determining the legislature's intent, we initially look to the language of the statute itself. Zamora v. Reinstein, 185 Ariz. 272, 275, 915 P.2d 1227, 1230 (1996). If the language is clear, the court must "apply it without resorting to other methods of statutory interpretation," Hayes v. Cont'l Ins. Co., 178 Ariz. 264, 268, 872 P.2d 668, 672 (1994), unless application of the plain meaning would lead to impossible or absurd results. Marquez v. Rapid Harvest Co., 89 Ariz. 62, 64, 358 P.2d 168, 170 (1960). The court must give effect to each word of the statute. Guzman v. Guzman, 175 Ariz. 183, 187, 854 P.2d 1169, 1173 (App. 1993) ("A statute is to be given such an effect that no clause, sentence or word is rendered superfluous, void, contradictory or insignificant."). In giving effect to every word or phrase, the court must assign to the language its "usual and commonly understood meaning unless the legislature clearly intended a different meaning." State v. Korzep, 165 Ariz. 490, 493, 799 P.2d 831, 834 (1990).

B.

¶ 12 We conclude that the plain language of A.R.S. § 12-2101(G) does not limit appeals of interlocutory judgments to equitable proceedings. Nothing in § 12-2101(G) indicates that the "other proceeding" must be similar to an accounting or, alternatively, another equitable proceeding. The statute contemplates only that the proceeding that remains determines the amount of recovery. Thus, a plain reading of § 12-2101(G) does not support the conclusion that it includes only equitable proceedings.

¶ 13 Moreover, we agree with Cook's rejection of the ejusdem generis rule, which if applied would limit "the type of proceedings in which appeals [under § 12-2101(G)] should be allowed." 26 Ariz.App. at 167, 547 P.2d at 19. The ejusdem generis rule applies "where general words follow the enumeration of particular classes of things." Black's Law Dictionary 517 (6th ed.1990) (emphasis added). Generally, we have applied this rule to aid in interpretation of statutes that include a list or series of specific, but similar, persons or things. See, e.g., In re Julio L., 197 Ariz. 1, 4, ¶ 11, 3 P.3d 383, 386 (2000) (finding that the term "seriously disruptive" should be interpreted in light of the preceding specific categories of "fighting" and "violent" behavior); Wilderness World, Inc. v. Dep't of Revenue, 182 Ariz. 196, 198-99, 895 P.2d 108, 110-11 (1995) (finding that guided river trips are not taxable under a general clause in the statute that taxes "any business charging admission fees for exhibition, amusement or instruction" because a river trip is not of the same kind or nature as the activities specifically listed in the statute—"theaters, movies, operas, shows, exhibitions, concerts, carnivals, circuses, amusement parks, menageries, fairs, races, contests, games, pool parlors, bowling alleys, dances, and boxing and wrestling matches"). The legislature did not create in A.R.S. § 12-2101(G) a...