Jakeman v. Lawrence Grp. Mgmt. Co.

• Decision Date: 21 March 2014
• Docket Number: 1111018.
• Citation: 151 So.3d 1083
• Parties: Kenneth JAKEMAN v. LAWRENCE GROUP MANAGEMENT COMPANY, LLC, et al.
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court

151 So.3d 1083

Kenneth JAKEMAN

v.LAWRENCE GROUP MANAGEMENT COMPANY, LLC, et al.

1111018.

Supreme Court of Alabama.

March 21, 2014.

Abbey Herrin, Birmingham, for appellant.

Michael H. Johnson of Johnston Barton Proctor & Rose LLP, Birmingham, for appellees Lawrence Group Management Co. and Montgomery Memorial Cemetery.

Opinion

MURDOCK, Justice.

Kenneth Jakeman (“Kenneth”) appeals from the trial court's judgment dismissing his claims against defendants Lawrence Group Management Company, LLC (“Lawrence”), Montgomery Memorial Cemetery (“MMC”), and Judy A. Jones (“Judy”).¹ We affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand.

I. Facts and Procedural History

This is the second time this case has come before this Court. In Jakeman v. Lawrence Group Management Co., 82 So.3d 655 (Ala.2011) (“Jakeman I ”), the Court succinctly summarized most of the facts and much of the key procedural history:

“Lawrence owns and operates Montgomery Memorial Cemetery, a cemetery in Montgomery (‘the cemetery’). Lawrence purchased the cemetery from Alderwoods [, Inc. (‘Alderwoods'),] in or around 2002. In 1967, Kenneth's father, Ben Jakeman, purchased from MMC a ‘family plot’ in the cemetery containing 10 separate burial spaces. The plot Ben selected was specifically chosen because of its location adjacent to plots owned by Ben's mother, Frances O'Neal. Pursuant to the terms of the purchase agreement for the family plot, burial within Ben's plot was limited to members of either the Jakeman family or the O'Neal family.

“In August 2002, MMC allegedly mistakenly conveyed two spaces in Ben's family plot to James A. Jones and his wife, Judy A. Jones. Following James's death, on August 28, 2002, James was interred in one of those two spaces.

“In 2006, Kenneth learned that James had been buried in Ben's family plot, at which time, Kenneth says, he immediately notified MMC and Ben. In response to demands by Kenneth and Ben, MMC disinterred James and moved both his body and his marker; however, James was reinterred in another space on Ben's family plot. Ben died in 2008. At the time of Ben's death, James's body remained buried in one of the spaces in Ben's plot.

“Despite the offer of an exchange of burial spaces, and based upon their purported refusal to again exhume and move James's body and marker, in May 2010 Kenneth filed suit against Alderwoods, Lawrence, MMC, and Judy A. Jones, alleging breach of contract; trespass; negligence, willfulness, and/or wantonness; the tort of outrage; and conversion. In her answer to Kenneth's complaint, Judy asserted her own cross-claim against Alderwoods, Lawrence, and MMC, based on their alleged error in conveying to her spaces already owned by Ben and the initial erroneous burial of James, his disinterment, and his subsequent erroneous reburial in another of Ben's spaces.

“Alderwoods subsequently filed a motion to dismiss Kenneth's complaint based on its contentions that Kenneth lacked the requisite ‘standing’ to pursue the stated claims, that the asserted tort claims did not survive Ben's death, and that some of the claims were barred by the expiration of the applicable limitations periods. Lawrence and MMC later joined Alderwoods's dismissal motion.

“The trial court conducted a hearing on the motion to dismiss on July 28, 2010, at the conclusion of which the trial court announced on the record its intention to dismiss the action but to provide Kenneth 30 days to refile any viable claims. Also at the conclusion of the hearing, the trial court requested a proposed order reflecting its stated decision, which counsel for Alderwoods volunteered to provide. The record reflects that, on August 1, 2010, the trial court signed the order prepared by Alderwoods granting the joint dismissal motion, dismissing ‘all claims brought by the plaintiff against all defendants.’ The order further provided that ‘all cross claims [were] also dismissed.’

“On August 2, 2010, Judy, who was presumably aware of the contents of the trial court's dismissal order at the time it was signed, filed a postjudgment motion pursuant to Rule 59(e), Ala. R. Civ. P., seeking to alter, amend, or vacate the order on the ground that it dismissed her cross-claim, which, she contended, was not addressed by the dismissal motion and was, therefore, not properly before the trial court on the motion to dismiss. The clerk of the trial court subsequently entered the trial court's previously signed dismissal order on September 17, 2010.”

82 So.3d at 656–57 (footnotes omitted).

On August 24, 2010, Kenneth filed a “Memorandum of Law” in which he sought to explain to the trial court why he believed he had standing to pursue his claims. On October 14, 2010, Kenneth filed a Rule 59(e), Ala. R. Civ. P., motion seeking to alter, amend, or vacate the trial court's dismissal order. Simultaneously, Kenneth filed a third amended complaint in his individual capacity and on behalf of the estate of Frances O'Neal.² The complaint reiterated Kenneth's individual claim of breach of contract, it asserted a breach-of-contract claim on behalf of the estate of Frances O'Neal, and it stated a claim for declaratory and injunctive relief; the complaint did not allege any tort claims.

On September 9, 2010, Robert Jakeman, Kenneth's brother and the personal representative of Ben Jakeman's estate, purported to sell the rights to the Jakeman burial plot back to MMC for $4,000. He also purported to relinquish all rights thereto and waived any claims the estate of Ben Jakeman had or could have against MMC or against Lawrence.

On October 29, 2010, the trial court entered an order specifically denying only Kenneth's motion to alter, amend, or vacate. On November 29, 2010, the trial court entered an “Amended Order” reiterating its dismissal of all of Kenneth's claims but ordering that “all cross-claims filed by Judy ... are NOT DISMISSED and shall remain pending.” Kenneth filed a notice of appeal on that same date.

On October 7, 2011, this Court released its decision in Jakeman I. In Jakeman I, this Court noted that the trial court's order dismissing all claims asserted by both Kenneth and Judy did not become effective until it was entered by the clerk on September 17, 2010. At that time, Judy's previously premature motion to alter, amend, or vacate the judgment was deemed to be filed, giving the trial court 90 days to rule on her motion. The trial court ruled on her motion through its November 29, 2010, “Amended Order” which stated that Judy's cross-claims remained pending against the other defendants. The Jakeman I Court concluded that because undisposed claims remained in the action and the trial court had not entered a Rule 54(b), Ala. R. Civ. P., order, Kenneth had appealed from a nonfinal judgment. Accordingly, this Court dismissed Kenneth's appeal.

On February 27, 2012, Kenneth filed in the trial court a motion seeking to have the judgment against him certified as a final judgment under Rule 54(b), which the trial court granted on April 9, 2012. Kenneth again appeals.

II. Standard of Review

“Unless it appears beyond a reasonable doubt that the plaintiff can prove no set of facts in support of his claim that would entitle him to relief under some cognizable theory of law, the court should not grant a motion to dismiss a complaint. Rice v. United Ins. Co., 465 So.2d 1100 (Ala.1984). This Court, when reviewing a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim, must resolve all doubts in favor of the plaintiff. Whitehead v. Hester, 512 So.2d 1297 (Ala.1987). In our review, we need not determine whether the plaintiff will ultimately prevail, only whether he has stated a claim on which he may possibly prevail. Fontenot v. Bramlett, 470 So.2d 669 (Ala.1985).”

American Auto. Ins. Co. v. McDonald, 812 So.2d 309, 311 (Ala.2001).

III. Analysis

The defendants³ grounded their motion to dismiss on three bases: (1) Kenneth's alleged lack of “standing”; (2) the abatement of Kenneth's tort claims; and (3) the time-bar created by the applicable statutes of limitations. As we noted in the rendition of the facts from Jakeman I, the trial court based its dismissal on a purported lack of standing. On appeal, Kenneth makes no argument in an effort to redeem the tort claims asserted by him in his original and first amended complaint. He appears to have relinquished those claims; therefore, we need not address the abatement issue. We thus turn to the other two issues listed above.

A. “Standing”

Although both sides label the first issue before us as one of “standing,” in reality it is merely one of whether Kenneth has stated a cause of action, i.e., whether he has alleged a set of facts that, if true, will entitle him to relief under Alabama law. See Rule 12(b)(6), Ala. R. Civ P. “[O]ur courts too often have fallen into the trap of treating as an issue of ‘standing’ that which is merely a failure to state a cognizable cause of action or legal theory, or a failure to satisfy [an] element of a cause of action.” Wyeth, Inc. v. Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Alabama, 42 So.3d 1216, 1219 (Ala.2010). Compare, e.g., Steele v. Federal Nat'l Mortg. Ass'n, 69 So.3d 89, 91 n. 2 (Ala.2010) (citing Wyeth as authority for rejecting the appellant's suggestion that a plaintiff's failure to have made a demand for possession before bringing an ejectment action presented an issue of standing). In Ex parte BAC Home Loans Servicing, LP, [Ms. 1110373, Sept. 13, 2013] 159 So.3d 31 (Ala.2013), this Court recently noted that the concept of standing was developed by the federal courts for use in public-law actions involving challenges to the actions of public officials and agencies. We quoted 13A Charles Alan Wright, Arthur R. Miller & Edward H. Cooper, Federal Practice and Procedure § 3531 (3d ed.2008), for the explanation that in private-law cases such questions as whether “ ‘the present plaintiff is ... entitled to a remedy’ ” is “ ‘better addressed through private-law concepts' ” such as “ ‘cause-of-action, real-party-in-interest, capacity, intervention, and like...