Hagood v. Gail
| Decision Date | 21 August 1995 |
| Docket Number | No. 93-T-4961,93-T-4961 |
| Citation | 105 Ohio App.3d 780,664 N.E.2d 1373 |
| Parties | HAGOOD et al., Appellees, v. GAIL, Appellant. * |
| Court | Ohio Court of Appeals |
Leo W. Keating, Daniel G. Keating, Warren, and Robert L. York, Cortland, for appellees.
Daniel J. Donnelon, Joseph E. Callow, Jr., Cincinnati, and Franklin J. Allred, Salt Lake City, UT, for appellant.
This appeal has been taken from a final judgment of the Trumbull County Court of Common Pleas. Appellant, Ila Gail, seeks the reversal of the trial court's decision approving the "election" of appellees, William and Elaine Hagood, to buy appellant's interest in certain real property located within this county.
The following is a synopsis of those limited facts which are pertinent to our disposition of the appeal.
The parties to this action were the owners of approximately ninety-six acres of land in Vienna Township, Ohio. Located upon the majority of this land was a mobile home park which had originally been developed during the 1960s. This park was operated and maintained by Tri-City Mobile Homes, an Ohio corporation. The remainder of the land housed a separate business which sold mobile homes. This second business was also operated by Tri-City Mobile Homes.
As of the date upon which this action was filed, appellant owned a one-half interest in both the land and the various improvements which had been placed upon the land prior to 1969. The remaining interest in the land and the pre-1969 improvements were owned by appellees, who each owned a one-quarter interest. The corporation was owned in its entirety by William Hagood.
At the time appellant initially acquired her interest in 1969, she entered into a series of agreements with William Hagood. Under two of these agreements, appellant agreed to lease the entire property to the corporation for the purpose of operating the two businesses. In relation to the land upon which the park was located, the applicable agreement contained provisions governing the percentage of ownership appellant would take of any post-1969 improvement when the lease was terminated. This agreement further provided that any dispute between the parties at the end of the lease as to the value of the land or the improvements had to be submitted to arbitration.
As to the duration of the park lease, the agreement stated that the initial lease was for fifteen years, with the corporation having an option to renew for an additional five-year period. Following the conclusion of the initial lease in 1984, the corporation did not exercise the option. Nevertheless, the corporation continued to occupy the entire property. Approximately six years later, appellant brought an action against, inter alia, William Hagood and the corporation. Although the record of that first action is not before this court in the instant appeal, evidence presented to the trial court in this case indicated that particular action culminated in a determination that the lease of the park property had ended in 1984.
In August 1991, William and Elaine Hagood, appellees, initiated the instant action against appellant. Under the first cause of action in their amended complaint, appellees requested that the land in question either be partitioned under R.C. Chapter 5307 or, in the alternative, that the respective interests of the parties in the land be determined so that the net proceeds of any sale of the property could be distributed in the correct manner. In five of the remaining six causes of action, appellees requested the trial court to determine the relative value of, and the parties' respective interests in, the land itself and the various improvements.
Before the action could come to trial, the parties were able to stipulate as to two facts pertaining to the partition issue. First, the parties agreed that, due to the nature of the property, it could not be partitioned without causing manifest injury to its value. Second, the parties stipulated that the present value of the land and the improvements was $1,400,000.
After the trial court had granted appellees' motion for a bifurcated hearing, a bench trial was held on the sole issue of the proper interpretation of the provisions in the park agreement as to the respective interests of the parties in the various improvements on the property. As part of its judgment rendered after this aspect of the trial, the trial court held that the arbitration clause in the agreement was still binding upon the parties, even though the lease had ended in 1984. Based upon this, the court ordered the parties to submit to arbitration the question of the proportionate value of the land and the various improvements.
The report of the arbitrators was rendered on July 29, 1993. On August 25, appellees filed notice of their intent to elect to purchase appellant's interest in the land and the improvements, and also moved the trial court to confirm the arbitrators' award. Although appellant had previously filed two separate notices indicating her intent to elect to purchase the interests of appellees, she failed to file such a notice after the arbitrators had issued their report.
On September 16, 1993, the trial court entered its judgment approving appellees' election to purchase appellant's interest. Based upon the values which the arbitrators had determined for the land and the improvements, the court held that appellant's interest was worth $560,000. Accordingly, the court ordered appellees to deposit that amount with the Clerk of Courts within forty-five days following the entry of the judgment. The court further ordered the Trumbull County Sheriff to execute and deliver a deed conveying the entire interest in the property to appellees, if and when appellees deposited the required amount.
Thirteen days after the entry of the September 16 judgment, appellant filed three documents with the trial court: (1) her notice of appeal initiating the instant appeal from that judgment; (2) a motion for relief from that judgment, pursuant to Civ.R. 60(B); and (3) a motion to stay the execution of that judgment while her Civ.R. 60(B) motion was pending. Once appellees had filed response briefs to both motions, the trial court issued a second judgment, in which it expressly denied appellant's motion for relief from judgment. 1 As part of this second judgment, the court denied appellant's motion for a stay on the basis that it was moot.
Exactly forty-five days after the entry of the September 16 judgment, on November 1, 1993, appellant filed an "emergency" motion to stay the execution of that judgment during the pendency of the instant appeal. Approximately five hours after the filing of this motion, the Trumbull County Clerk of Courts filed an acknowledgment of the receipt of $560,000 from appellees. The Trumbull County Sheriff then issued a deed to the entire property to appellees on a subsequent date.
The trial court did not issue a decision on appellant's stay motion until December 7, 1993. In its judgment entry, the court noted that appellees had paid the required amount and that a deed to the property had been delivered to them. Nevertheless, the court granted appellant's motion in part, specifically ordering appellant to place the deposited funds into an escrow account. The court further ordered appellees "to do all things necessary to preserve their ability to return to [appellant] an undivided one-half interest in the Property."
In seeking to appeal from the judgment of September 16, 1993, appellant has raised two assignments of error for our consideration. These assignments challenge the trial court's application of the arbitration clause in the park lease agreement and the procedure the court employed in allowing the parties to elect whether to purchase the opposing party's interest in the property. 2
However, at the conclusion of oral arguments in this appeal, this court requested that the parties file supplemental briefing concerning the propriety of the procedure which the trial court followed in rendering its December 7, 1993 judgment on appellant's motion to stay the execution of the September 16, 1993 judgment during the pendency of this appeal. Specifically, we asked the parties to address the issue of the effect of the delivery of the deed to appellees, prior to the issuance of the December 7 judgment, upon the jurisdiction of this court to hear this appeal.
Upon reviewing the record and the parties' supplemental briefing, this court holds that the merits of appellant's assignments are not properly before us because they have been rendered moot. This holding is based upon the fact that the September 16 judgment had been fully executed before the trial court rendered its decision granting the stay motion in part.
As the parties aptly note in their briefs, the filing of a notice of appeal does not completely divest a trial court of jurisdiction over a case; instead, a trial court retains all jurisdiction which does not conflict with the jurisdiction of the appellate court. Yee v. Erie Cty. Sheriff's Dept. (1990), 51 Ohio St.3d 43, 44, 553 N.E.2d 1354, 1355. This retained jurisdiction includes the authority to take any action which would aid in the execution of the appealed judgment. State ex rel. Klein v. Chorpening (1983), 6 Ohio St.3d 3, 4, 6 OBR 2, 3-4, 450 N.E.2d 1161, 1162-1163; Northfield Park Assoc. v. Northeast Ohio Harness (1987), 36 Ohio App.3d 14, 26, 521 N.E.2d 466, 478-479.
Consistent with the jurisdiction of the trial court to enforce a judgment, the nonappealing party in an action retains a legal right to initiate proceedings in aid of the execution of a judgment even after an appeal from that judgment has been taken. Pontiac Motor Div. v. Motor Vehicle Dealers Bd. (Sept. 15, 1987), Franklin App. No. 87AP-48, unreported, 1987 WL 17391.
Of course, a trial court's ability to exercise its jurisdiction over an appealed judgment, like the...
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