Cavinder Elevators, Inc. v. Hall

• Decision Date: 04 April 2000
• Docket Number: No. 55S01-0004-CV-233.,55S01-0004-CV-233.
• Citation: 726 N.E.2d 285
• Parties: CAVINDER ELEVATORS, INC., Defendant-Appellant, v. William L. HALL, Plaintiff-Appellee.
• Court: Indiana Supreme Court

726 N.E.2d 285

CAVINDER ELEVATORS, INC., Defendant-Appellant, v. William L. HALL, Plaintiff-Appellee.

No. 55S01-0004-CV-233.

Supreme Court of Indiana.

April 4, 2000.

W. Brent Threlkeld, Robert A. Durham, Rocap Witchger & Threlkeld, Indianapolis, Indiana, Attorneys for Appellant.

Thomas E. Hastings, Brown Hastings & Clutter, Indianapolis, Indiana, Attorney for Appellee.

ON PETITION TO TRANSFER

DICKSON, Justice

Indiana Trial Rule 53.3(A) declares that a motion to correct error shall be deemed denied if the trial court fails to rule within certain time limits. On rare occasion, however, a trial court may initially fail to rule timely on a motion to correct error but later, after the moving party timely files a praecipe to initiate an appeal from the deemed denial, the court may belatedly grant the motion. We grant transfer to address and clarify resulting appellate procedural issues.

In this personal injury case, after the trial court granted the motion for summary judgment filed by the defendant-appellant, Cavinder Elevators, Inc., the plaintiff-appellee, William L. Hall, filed a motion to correct errors challenging the grant of summary judgment and claiming newly discovered evidence. When the trial court failed to rule within thirty days after its hearing on the motion to correct errors, the plaintiff timely filed a praecipe, thus initiating an appeal. Ind. Appellate Rule 2(A). Shortly thereafter, however, the trial court granted the plaintiff's motion, finding that the newly discovered evidence was material, relevant, credible, and not merely cumulative or impeaching, and that the plaintiff's failure to discover the evidence was excusable in light of the circumstances and the plaintiff's reasonable diligence. The court expressly set aside the prior ruling granting summary judgment. Having obtained the relief sought, the plaintiff did not further pursue his appeal. Instead, the defendant initiated this appeal. In response to the defendant-appellant's brief, the plaintiff sought review on the merits of the issues presented in his motion to correct error, including the grant of summary judgment and the claim of newly discovered evidence.

The Court of Appeals held that, because the trial court failed to rule on the motion to correct error within thirty days pursuant to Indiana Trial Rule 53.3(A), the motion was deemed denied and the trial court's ruling granting the motion and setting aside the summary judgment was a nullity. Cavinder Elevators, Inc. v. Hall, 670 N.E.2d 61, 63 (Ind.Ct.App.1996). Noting that the plaintiff asserted cross-error in his appellate brief, pursuant to Indiana Trial Rule 59(G), the court addressed the merits of the plaintiff's claim of newly discovered evidence but concluded that "no error occurred when [the plaintiff's] motion to correct error based on newly discovered evidence was deemed denied." Id. at 64. The Court of Appeals did not, however, address the merits of the plaintiff's challenge to the grant of summary judgment, which was presented in the plaintiff's motion to correct error and reasserted as cross-error on appeal.

In his petition for transfer and supporting brief, the plaintiff does not take issue with the Court of Appeals determination that the trial court's belated granting of the plaintiff's motion to correct error was invalid pursuant to Trial Rule 53.3(A). He asserts, rather, that the Court of Appeals failed to address his claim that the trial court erred in granting the defendant's motion for summary judgment and, further, that the Court of Appeals erred in rejecting his claim of newly discovered evidence.

The "Deemed Denied" Problem

Indiana Trial Rule 53.3(A) states in relevant part:

In the event a court fails for forty-five (45) days to set a Motion to Correct Error for hearing, or fails to rule on a Motion to Correct Error within thirty (30) days after it was heard or forty-five (45) days after it was filed, if no hearing is required, the pending Motion to Correct Error shall be deemed denied.¹

Various issues may arise when a trial court grants a motion to correct error after the expiration of the prescribed time limits and after the party filing the motion has commenced an appeal from the deemed denial.

The defendant argues that its appeal is authorized under Trial Rule 59(F), which makes appealable any order "modif[ying] or setting aside" a final judgment. Furthermore, Indiana Appellate Rule 4(A) provides that a ruling or order by the trial court granting or denying relief on a motion to correct error is an appealable final order. We observe that if a trial court belatedly grants a motion to correct error and thereby purports to vacate a prior grant of summary judgment, the trial court will presumably proceed with the case to conclusion. To construe our rules to preclude the party opposing the motion to correct error from the opportunity to immediately appeal a belatedly granted, but "deemed denied," motion to correct error would disserve the efficient administration of justice. We reject the notion that the "deemed denied" language in Trial Rule 53.3(A) precludes a timely appeal under Trial Rule 59(F) and Appellate Rule 4(A).²

Accordingly, we hold that the belated grant of the motion to correct error in this case is not necessarily a nullity but rather is voidable and subject to enforcement of the "deemed denied" provision of Trial Rule 53.3(A) in the event the party opposing the motion to correct error promptly appeals. Had the defendant failed to promptly appeal this belated grant, such failure would constitute waiver and would have precluded a subsequent appellate claim that the motion to correct error was deemed denied under Trial Rule 53.3(A).

In addition to recognizing that the party opposing the motion to correct error may promptly appeal to assert that the motion was deemed denied under the rule, we further hold that the party filing the motion to correct error may seek appellate review of the merits of the "deemed denied" motion. When a party, like the plaintiff in this case, properly files a well-founded motion to correct error and timely files a praecipe when no action is taken within the Rule 53.3(A) period, but thereafter receives an order from the court granting the relief requested, such party should not be found to have abandoned the appeal. In his brief as appellee, the plaintiff reasserted the issues raised in the "deemed denied" motion to correct error. While concluding that the trial court had no power to grant the plaintiff's motion after the thirty-day period expired, the Court of Appeals found that Trial Rule 59(G) allowed the plaintiff to "raise any cross-error in his appellate brief, including the denial of his motion to correct error by operation of law." Cavinder Elevators, 670 N.E.2d at 63. We agree.

Having "won" the relief sought when the trial court ultimately, but belatedly, granted the motion to correct error, it is reasonable that the party filing the motion to correct error would assume that the case will proceed to trial and thus would have no reason to continue the appeal. But if the party opposing the motion to correct error promptly appeals from the belated grant of the motion to correct errors, arguing that the trial court had no power to grant the motion after the period specified under the rule, the time period for the party who filed the motion to correct error to perfect his timely-commenced appeal may have expired. This party should not be required to perfect and pursue an apparently unnecessary appeal of a claim already determined to be meritorious by the trial court.

When a trial court considers and grants a motion to correct error, even if done belatedly, we perceive that such a decision will typically be correct on the merits and will result in expeditious further proceedings, without an intervening appeal. Sound judicial administration thus counsels against requiring a party whose motion to correct error is belatedly granted nevertheless to perfect an appeal from the superseded but "deemed denied" motion. These same concerns also counsel against permitting a belated grant of a motion to correct error long after its deemed denial has concluded the case as a final judgment from which an appeal was taken. Although we conclude that the plaintiff's abandonment of his timely-commenced appeal should not preclude him from asserting by cross-error under Trial Rule 59(G) the issues presented in his motion to correct error, we hold that the rule does not authorize resort to cross-error as a device to raise claims abandoned by the failure to initiate a timely appeal upon the deemed denial of a motion pursuant to Rule 53.3(A).

Contrary to concerns expressed in the dissenting opinion, this application of Rule 53.3(A) does not create an open-ended time in which the trial court may rule. It applies only if, within thirty days after the motion is deemed denied,³ the party filing the motion timely initiates an appeal,⁴ and if the trial court belatedly grants the motion to correct error before the record of proceedings is filed, transferring jurisdiction to the appellate tribunal.⁵ If a belated grant occurs, the opposing party may accept the ruling or may appeal to invalidate it as deemed denied pursuant to Rule 53.3(A).⁶ The party filing the motion may not thereafter assert as cross-error the issues presented in the "deemed denied" motion to correct error if the time for filing a praecipe has expired and the party failed to commence an appeal.

Summarizing our conclusions regarding the "deemed denied" problem, we reiterate that the belated grant of the plaintiff's motion to correct error in this case was not a nullity but rather was voidable subject to the defendant's timely appeal under Trial Rule 59(F) and Appellate Rule 4(A). If the defendant had failed to promptly appeal the belated grant of such a motion, however, this failure would have waived and thus precluded subsequent appellate review of...