Ex parte Sidetrack Plaza, LLC
Decision Date | 02 September 2022 |
Docket Number | 1210119 |
Parties | Ex parte Sidetrack Plaza, LLC, et al. v. Sidetrack Plaza, LLC, et al. In re: Hari Har, LLC |
Court | Alabama Supreme Court |
Tuscaloosa Circuit Court, CV-21-900812
PETITION FOR WRIT OF MANDAMUS
Sidetrack Plaza, LLC, Rajvinder Singh, Maninder Pruthi, Parminder Pruthi, and Union Track Plaza, LLC ("the petitioners"), petition this Court for a writ of mandamus directing the Tuscaloosa Circuit Court to vacate its October 15, 2021, order purporting to vacate its September 21, 2021, order transferring the underlying action to the Greene Circuit Court. We grant the petition and issue the writ.
On September 10, 2021, Hari Har, LLC, the plaintiff below commenced a declaratory-judgment action in the Tuscaloosa Circuit Court against the petitioners. On September 20, 2021, the petitioners filed motions to dismiss or, in the alternative, to transfer the case to the Greene Circuit Court. On September 21, 2021, the Tuscaloosa Circuit Court entered an order granting the motions to transfer the case to Greene County ("the transfer order"). On that same day, Hari Har filed a motion to reconsider the transfer order. On September 23, 2021, the Tuscaloosa Circuit Court entered an order setting a hearing on the motion to reconsider for October 8, 2021.
The case-action-summary sheet from the Greene Circuit Court includes an entry for 12:26 p.m. on September 29, 2021, stating: "COMPLAINT E-FILED." That case-action-summary sheet also includes multiple entries for 12:52 p.m. on September 29, 2021, including one entry stating "FILED THIS DATE: 09/29/2021" and another entry assigning the case to a Greene County circuit judge. Finally, the petitioners attached a letter from the Tuscaloosa Circuit Clerk's office. That letter states:
The letter includes a line labeled "NEW CASE #," on which the new Greene Circuit Court case number has been written, and a line labeled "DATE FILED," on which "9/29/2021" has been written. The letter was stamped as filed in the Greene Circuit Court on September 29, 2021.
On September 29, 2021, at 1:13 p.m., the Tuscaloosa Circuit Court entered an order stating:
The Tuscaloosa Circuit Court subsequently rescheduled the hearing on the motion to reconsider to October 14, 2021. On October 15, 2021, after having conducted the hearing, the Tuscaloosa Circuit Court entered an order that states:
(Capitalization original.) The petitioners subsequently filed a petition for the writ of mandamus asking this Court to direct the Tuscaloosa Circuit Court to vacate its October 15, 2021, order.
Standard of Review
The petitioners argue that the Tuscaloosa Circuit Court did not have jurisdiction to enter the October 15, 2021, order in which it purported to vacate the transfer order because it entered that order after the case file had been sent to and docketed by the Greene Circuit Court.
In Ex parte Sawyer, 873 So.2d 166 (Ala. 2003), the defendants in that case filed a motion to transfer the case to the Mobile Circuit Court. On August 26, 2002, the Montgomery Circuit Court, instead, entered an order transferring the case to the Baldwin Circuit Court. On September 3, 2002, the plaintiff in that case filed a motion to reconsider in the Montgomery Circuit Court. The case was docketed in the Baldwin Circuit Court on September 6, 2002. On September 26, 2002, the defendants filed a response to the motion to reconsider in which they asserted that the Montgomery Circuit Court did not have jurisdiction to entertain the motion to reconsider because the case had already been transferred to the Baldwin Circuit Court. On December 4, 2002, after conducting a hearing, the Montgomery Circuit Court entered an order in which it purported to grant the plaintiff's motion to reconsider "and order[ed] that the action '[be] transferred to Montgomery County.'" 873 So.2d at 167.
The defendants sought mandamus review and argued that the Montgomery Circuit Court had lacked the authority to enter the December 4, 2002, order purporting to return the case to the Montgomery Circuit Court. This Court agreed, stating:
Ex parte Sawyer, 873 So.2d at 167. See also Ex parte MedPartners, Inc., 820 So.2d 815, 821 (Ala. 2001)(Jefferson Circuit Court's order purporting to set aside its previous transfer order was a nullity because, "[a]t that point, the case had already been transferred to Tuscaloosa County, a case file had been created and a Tuscaloosa County case number assigned, and the Tuscaloosa County circuit judge assigned to the case had entered orders in the case") that the .
In this case, the Tuscaloosa Circuit Court entered its order purporting to vacate its previous transfer order on October 15, 2021.[1]However, at that time, the case had already been sent to and docketed by the Greene Circuit Court. Additionally, the Greene Circuit Court case-action-summary sheet shows that a Greene County case number had been assigned to the case and that the Greene Circuit Court had already set the case for a preliminary hearing. Therefore Hari Har'...
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