Purcell v. Superior Court In and For County of Maricopa
| Decision Date | 06 August 1992 |
| Docket Number | CA-SA,Nos. 1,CA-CV,s. 1 |
| Citation | 835 P.2d 498,172 Ariz. 166 |
| Parties | Helen PURCELL, Maricopa County Recorder, Petitioner, v. SUPERIOR COURT of the State of Arizona, In and For the COUNTY OF MARICOPA, the Honorable Robert D. Myers, a judge thereof, Respondent Judge, Ruben ORTEGA, Police Chief of the City of Phoenix; Dudley Gibson, Ronald Coker, and Jason Peterson, Police Officers of the City of Phoenix; Alan Lobue, Alan Hammond, Walter Lee Jackson, and Reginald Keifer, Judges of the Phoenix Municipal Court, Real Parties in Interest. Robert K. CORBIN, Carl J. Kunasek, Joseph Lane, and Duane Vild, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. Helen PURCELL, Maricopa County Recorder; Maricopa County, a political subdivision of the State of Arizona, Defendants-Appellees. 91-254, 190-464. |
| Court | Arizona Court of Appeals |
In this consolidated appeal and special action, we consider whether the Maricopa County Recorder must physically remove a document determined to be an invalid lien from the county's official records in order to "remove" the lien from the records within the meaning of Arizona Revised Statutes Annotated ("A.R.S.") section 33-420(B) (1990). We conclude that physical removal of the document is not required and that the county recorder need only record a subsequent document declaring the lien to be invalid in order to "remove" it from the county's records within the meaning of the statute.
In 1989, fourteen public officials of Maricopa County and the State of Arizona filed a statutory special action pursuant to section 33-420(B) against the Maricopa County Recorder in the Maricopa County Superior Court. 1 They alleged that certain invalid liens against their property had been filed and recorded in the county recorder's office. They asked that the county recorder, in accordance with the applicable statute, be compelled to remove the liens. The county recorder responded that she would not oppose a court order requiring her to remove the liens, provided that the removal was accomplished by filing a copy of the final judgment in the action or another document declaring the liens to be invalid. She stated, however, that she would oppose an order requiring her to expunge, destroy, or alter any of the county's official records.
The trial court determined that the recorded liens were invalid and directed the public officials to submit a form of judgment granting the relief that they had requested. The form of judgment they submitted would have required the county recorder to physically remove the invalid lien documents from the county's official records, "including but not limited to any docket books, separate record books, or other containers, any index or cross-index thereto, any blotter, electronic or filmed reproduction, or any other form in which said document is maintained or accessed." The county recorder objected to this language. The trial court ordered that it be deleted and entered a judgment that simply directed the county recorder to remove the invalid liens from the county's official records. The public officials submitted a motion for reconsideration asking to have the language in question reinstated. When the motion was denied, four of the public officials appealed.
Eight City of Phoenix judges and police officers also filed a statutory special action in the Maricopa County Superior Court in 1989 pursuant to section 33-420(B) asking that similar invalid recorded liens against their property be removed from Maricopa County's official records. The county recorder again responded that she would object to a court order that required the physical removal, destruction, or alteration of any recorded document. She asked that she only be required to record a document that reflected the trial court's decision concerning the liens in question.
The trial court found that the recorded liens were invalid and ordered the county recorder to remove them from the county's official records. The judges and police officers The county recorder sought special action relief in this court from the trial court's contempt order. We accepted jurisdiction because contempt orders issued pursuant to A.R.S. section 12-864 (1992) are not appealable. Pace v. Pace, 128 Ariz. 455, 626 P.2d 619 (App.1981). We also accepted jurisdiction because the interpretation of section 33-420(B) is a matter of statewide importance that turns upon a question of law rather than upon disputed issues of fact. Lewis v. Warner, 166 Ariz. 354, 802 P.2d 1053 (App.1990). On our own motion, we consolidated the special action with the pending appeal.
[172 Ariz. 169] subsequently requested that the county recorder be required to appear and show cause why she should not be held in contempt for failing to comply with the court's order by physically removing the recorded lien documents from the county recording system. At the hearing on the order to show cause, the county recorder took the position that she had removed the liens by recording the judgment declaring them to be invalid. At the conclusion of the hearing, the trial court found the county recorder to be in contempt, stating that section 33-420(B) required that the invalid lien documents be removed, not that a subsequent document declaring their invalidity be recorded.
We initially find it necessary to address the procedural argument made by the respondents/real parties in interest that the county recorder's petition for special action relief constitutes an impermissible collateral attack on the judgment that underlies her contempt citation and that this court therefore lacks jurisdiction to consider it. The term "jurisdiction" relates to a court's competency to determine controversies of the general class to which the case then presented for its consideration belongs. State v. Marquess, 168 Ariz. 123, 811 P.2d 375 (App.1991). Arizona Revised Statutes section 12-120.21(A)(4) (1992) gives the court of appeals jurisdiction "to hear and determine petitions for special actions brought pursuant to the rules of procedure for special actions, without regard to its appellate jurisdiction." Rule 1(a) of the Arizona Rules of Procedure for Special Actions provides that special action relief is only available to parties who have no "equally plain, speedy, and adequate remedy by appeal." Rule 3(c) provides that a party may file a petition for special action to ask this court to consider "[w]hether a determination was arbitrary and capricious or an abuse of discretion." The county recorder alleged in her petition for special action relief that the trial court acted arbitrarily and capriciously and abused its discretion when it held her in contempt and that she had no plain, speedy, or adequate remedy by appeal. This court therefore has jurisdiction to consider her petition. 2
We next consider the county recorder's argument that the appeal does not properly place at issue the meaning of the word "remove" as it is used in section 33-420(B). The county recorder maintains that the language that appellants sought to include in the judgment was superfluous if section 33-420(B) requires her to physically remove the lien documents from the system as they claim that it does. She contends that if appellants thought that she had failed to comply with the judgment, they should have requested that she be required to appear and show cause why she should not be held in contempt for her noncompliance. We disagree.
Appellants argued throughout the proceedings in the trial court that section 33-420(B) required the county recorder to physically remove the invalid lien documents from the county recording system. As we have noted, they prepared a form of judgment that explicitly required the county recorder to eliminate any trace of the liens from the county's official records. When the trial court deleted this requirement in response to the county recorder's objection and simply ordered that the liens be removed from the county's records, appellants filed a motion for reconsideration. In the motion they again argued that they were entitled to have the lien documents physically removed and asked that the language requiring physical removal be reinstated. When the trial court denied their motion for reconsideration, they appealed. On appeal, they argue that the trial court erred in deleting the requested language because section 33-420(B) requires that the lien documents be physically removed. Their appeal thus places the issue of the meaning of the word "remove" as it is used in section 33-420(B) squarely before this court. Having disposed of the procedural considerations, we proceed to the merits.
The appellants and the respondents/real parties in interest argue that the plain language of section 33-420(B) requires the county recorder "to remove a lien" that has been determined to be invalid "from the official records of the county." They maintain that if the legislature had intended that an invalid lien be nullified by some method other than physical removal from the county's records, such as the recording of a subsequent document declaring the lien to be invalid, it would have expressly set forth that method in the statute.
The county recorder's response is based in part upon the nature of Maricopa County's recording system. The record demonstrates that original documents presented to the...
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