Marshall v. Williams

• Decision Date: 14 April 1981
• Docket Number: No. 1,CA-CIV,1
• Citation: 627 P.2d 242,128 Ariz. 511
• Parties: Vera MARSHALL, George V. Cosseboom, Kenneth Ghost and Shyrell Ghost, on behalf of themselves and all others similarly situated, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. Lynn WILLIAMS, Director of the Coconino County Department of Indigent MedicalServices, Dr. William Thomas, Coconino County Health Department Director andDr. Peter J. Lindemann, Tio A. Tachias and J. Dennis Wells, members of theCoconino CountyBoard of Supervisors, all individually and in their official capacities,Defendants-Appellees. 5692.
• Court: Arizona Court of Appeals

Page 242

627 P.2d 242

128 Ariz. 511

Vera MARSHALL, George V. Cosseboom, Kenneth Ghost and Shyrell Ghost, on behalf of themselves and all others similarly situated, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. Lynn WILLIAMS, Director of the Coconino County Department of Indigent MedicalServices, Dr. William Thomas, Coconino County Health Department Director andDr. Peter J. Lindemann, Tio A. Tachias and J. Dennis Wells, members of theCoconino CountyBoard of Supervisors, all individually and in their official capacities,Defendants-Appellees.

No. 1 CA-CIV 5692.

Court of Appeals of Arizona, Division 1, Department A.

April 14, 1981.

Coconino County Legal Aid by Robert L. Miller, Michelle Ratner, Flagstaff, Community Legal Services by Carla Ryan, Phoenix, for plaintiffs-appellants

Mangum, Wall, Stoops & Warden by Daniel J. Stoops, Flagstaff, for defendants-appellees.

OPINION

CONTRERAS, Presiding Judge.

We have determined on our own motion following this court's routine jurisdictional review, ¹ that this appeal must be dismissed for lack of adjudication of one whole claim notwithstanding the inclusion of a rule 54(b) ² determination of finality in the judgment from which appeal is taken. This case is illustrative of a recurring species of attempted appeals ³ and we therefore deem a published opinion appropriate.

By amended complaint filed June 7, 1979, appellants Marshall, Cosseboom and Ghosts brought a suit stated in eight "causes of action" against the appellee officials of Coconino County. Appellants brought suit in their own behalf and in behalf of all others similarly situated. In a "preliminary statement" in their amended complaint, appellants stated its general purpose as follows:

This is an action for declaratory and injunctive relief and for monetary damages. The plaintiffs, on behalf of themselves and all others similarly situated seek to have declared invalid and enjoined the defendants' practice of determining eligibility for Coconino County medical assistance on the basis of the gross market value of an applicant's assets without regard to liens or other encumbrances on those assets. The class members also seek monetary damages from the defendants.

In their various causes of action appellants alleged, inter alia, that appellees' interpretation and application of the term "fair market value" in Coconino County Regulation R6-3-1213 was contrary to applicable law, arbitrary and capricious, a denial of contractual rights to which appellants were entitled as third party beneficiaries, a denial of privileges and immunities guaranteed by our state constitution and of equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the federal constitution and an invidiously discriminatory denial of due process under both constitutions. Essentially, then, appellants, in a single claim, are seeking to invalidate the regulation and its application, pursuant to a variety of legal theories.

Appellants filed a motion for partial summary judgment contending that the legislature had granted to the Department of Economic Security the authority to define who is indigent for the purpose of receiving public medical assistance and that appellee county had unlawfully adopted a more restrictive definition than the Department. Appellees brought a cross-motion for partial summary judgment, contending that it was proper for the County Board of Supervisors to set the standards for indigency under A.R.S. § 11-291 and that the delegation of authority to the Department of Economic Security to define indigency under A.R.S. § 11-297 was unconstitutional. The trial court denied appellants' motion and granted appellees' motion for partial summary judgment. Pursuant to a motion by appellants, which was opposed by appellees, the trial court included in the judgment a determination of finality pursuant to rule 54(b), Rules of Civil Procedure, 16 A.R .S. At this juncture, relief has been denied on only one legal theory and the single claim which has been alleged has not been adjudicated.

Under the circumstances, we can do no better than to refer to the case of Page v. Preisser, 585 F.2d 336 (8th Cir. 1978). In that case, plaintiff sought to invalidate certain regulations of the Iowa Department of Social Services based on two alternative theories. First, she alleged that the Iowa regulations were inconsistent with those of the United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare and therefore void under the supremacy clause of the federal constitution. Secondly, she alleged that the Iowa regulations denied her due process under the fourteenth amendment to the federal constitution. The district court first determined that the Iowa regulations were not inconsistent with the federal regulations and it entered a judgment to that effect which included a rule 54(b) certification. ⁴ The appellate court first discussed the nature and policies of federal rule 54(b), after which our rule is patterned:

Rule 54(b) was originally enacted to avoid the possible injustice that might result if judgment of a distinctly separate claim were delayed until adjudication of the entire case. See Advisory Committee on Rules for Civil Procedure (1946), reprinted in 5 F.R.D. 472 (1946). The rule did not, however, purport to amend or dilute the fundamental rule against splitting a cause of action and deciding appellate cases piecemeal. See In re Bromley-Heath Modernization Committee, 448 F.2d 1271 (1st Cir. 1971). See also Sears, Roebuck & Co. v. Mackey, 351 U.S. 427, 435, 76 S.Ct. 895, 899, 100 L.Ed. 1297 (1956). Thus, Rule 54(b) allows an appeal only from a judgment on a separate claim....

....

It is clear that a claimant who presents a number of alternative legal theories, but whose recovery is limited to only one of them, has only a single claim of relief for purposes of Rule 54(b). See Edney v. Fidelity & Guaranty Life Insurance Company, 348 F.2d 136, 138 (8th Cir. 1965). One commentator has aptly summarized the policies underlying this view.

The trial judge is generally not permitted to certify the dismissal of fewer than all of a party's counts when his remaining counts deal with the same transaction or occurrence as those appealed.... By thus forbidding certification of an order dismissing fewer than all of a party's legal theories based on the same transaction, the courts leave open the possibility that the party will still be awarded relief, an event that would render unnecessary an appellate determination on the dismissal; this possibility disappears where no alternative theory for relief remains.... In addition to eliminating unnecessary appeals, (this approach) avoids appellate review of the same evidence on more than one appeal.

Note, Appealability in the Federal Courts, 75 Harv.L.Rev. 351, 360-361 (1961).

585 F.2d at 339. The court then found that although the plaintiff asserted alternative theories in support of her claim that the regulations were invalid, her complaint nonetheless...