Kelley v. Arizona Dept. of Corrections, CV-87-0174-SA

• Court: Supreme Court of Arizona
• Citation: 154 Ariz. 476,744 P.2d 3
• Docket Number: No. CV-87-0174-SA,CV-87-0174-SA
• Parties: Tom E. KELLEY, Petitioner, v. ARIZONA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS, Sam A. Lewis, Director, and David Withey, Legal Analyst, Respondents.
• Decision Date: 06 October 1987

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744 P.2d 3 154 Ariz. 476 Tom E. KELLEY, Petitioner,
v.
ARIZONA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS, Sam A. Lewis, Director, and David Withey, Legal Analyst, Respondents. No. CV-87-0174-SA. Supreme Court of Arizona, In Banc. Oct. 6, 1987.

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Arizona State University Law Clinic by Jane Aiken, Gary Lowenthal, Supervising Attys., Mary Crawford, Darryl Engle, Student Attys., Tempe, for petitioner.

Robert K. Corbin, Atty. Gen. by Thomas Prose, Guy B. Price, Asst. Attys. Gen., Phoenix, for respondents.

MOELLER, Justice.

FACTS

In 1972, petitioner Tom E. Kelley was convicted of rape and sentenced to twenty to thirty years' imprisonment. He was paroled in 1978. In 1982, while on parole, he was convicted of sexual abuse. Following this second conviction, the Arizona Board of Pardons and Paroles (the Board) revoked his parole. In addition, the Board, pursuant to A.R.S. § 31-417 and this court's decision in Baker v. Arizona Board of Pardons & Paroles, 150 Ariz. 414, 724 P.2d 33 (1986), forfeited Kelley's "street time," that is, the time he had spent on parole. Ariz.Comp.Admin.R. & Regs. 5-4-102(16). Thus, if the Board's decision stands, Kelley's term in prison will be lengthened by three years and eight months, the time he had been on parole.

On January 1, 1987, Kelley began serving the last three years and eight months of his sentence as calculated by the Board. He filed a special action in the superior court, alleging that the forfeiture of his street time was a violation of his due process rights. The trial court agreed with Kelley, ruled that his street time had been improperly forfeited, and ordered the Department of Corrections to release him from custody. The Board appealed the trial court's ruling to the court of appeals. Nothing in this opinion on special action should be construed as going to the merits of that appeal.

The Department of Corrections (the Department) did not release Kelley from custody because it took the position that the appeal by the Board automatically stayed the judgment, including the release order. Kelley then filed a special action against the Department in this court, requesting that we order the Department to release him pending appeal. After oral argument, we accepted jurisdiction pursuant to Ariz. Const. art. 6, § 5(4) and ordered Kelley released unless the Department sought and obtained a stay from the trial court. We now hold that the filing of the appeal did not operate as an automatic stay of the judgment.

PROCEDURAL ISSUES

The Department of Corrections, in its supplemental response to the petition for special action, urged this court to accept jurisdiction of this special action and resolve the issue presented by it. However, in its original written response to the petition, as well as in oral argument, the Department urges a number of procedural objections to the petition. We deal first with those procedural objections.

First, the Department argues that, under Rule 7(a), Arizona Rules of Procedure for Special Actions, this special action should have been brought in the court of appeals. Where, as here, the court of appeals has original appellate jurisdiction, it is ordinarily the court to which the special action must be presented in the first instance. However, if extremely unusual circumstances make it appropriate for us to do so, we may, in our discretion, entertain the special action directly. See Green v. Superior Court, 132 Ariz. 468, 470, 647 P.2d 166, 168 (1982). We agree with petitioner that this case presents such unusual circumstances. The necessity for this action is the Department's belief that the notice of appeal acts as an automatic

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[154 Ariz. 477] stay. Thus, under the state's view, even if Kelley prevails at every other level of the court system, he must remain incarcerated until this court renders a final appellate decision favorable to him. In addition, the issue presented is a common one which requires definitive resolution, since there are many appeals by the state, its officers, and its agencies. These circumstances make it desirable and appropriate for this court to entertain the petition.

During oral argument, the Department suggested, for the first time, that the trial court lacked authority to order Kelley's release because the petition in the trial court only requested relief from the Board. The Department concedes that this point was not raised in the trial court or in any pleading filed in this court. We consider the argument to have been waived.

The Department also suggests that this court does not have jurisdiction over it because it was not a party to the special action in the trial court. This argument was also raised for the first time at oral argument. The short answer to it is that in this special action in this court the Department is the respondent, it has appeared, and we do have jurisdiction over it. Thus, there are no procedural or jurisdictional impediments to resolution on the merits of the issue raised in this special action.

STATE'S NOTICE OF APPEAL: AUTOMATIC STAY?

The substantive issue in this case is whether a notice of appeal filed by the state (or an officer or agency of the state) operates as an automatic stay of a non-money judgment. We hold that it does not.

Rule 31.16, Arizona Rules of Criminal Procedure, provides in part: "An appeal by the state is inoperative to stay order in favor of the defendant...."

The comment explaining the rule is explicit: "This provision is to prevent a defendant from being automatically held in custody upon appeal by the state."

Thus, if this were an appeal in a criminal case, the Rules would provide a clear and conclusive answer. Since this is an appeal from a special action, however, the Rules of Civil Procedure and the Rules of Civil Appellate Procedure apply. The Department contends that those rules require a result different from that which the criminal rules would mandate.

In support of its argument, the Department relies heavily on Navajo County v. Superior Court, 105 Ariz. 156, 461 P.2d 77 (1969). In Navajo County, Four Corners Pipeline Company obtained a money judgment against a number of Arizona counties for a refund of excess property taxes. The counties appealed. During the course of the appeal, the company took steps to collect on the judgment. We held that the company...