Shoop v. Kittitas County

• Decision Date: 10 September 2001
• Docket Number: No. 47088-4-I.,47088-4-I.
• Citation: 30 P.3d 529,108 Wash. App. 388
• Parties: Cathleen L. SHOOP and Ken Shoop, husband and wife, Appellants, v. KITTITAS COUNTY and John Does I-IV, Respondents.
• Court: Washington Court of Appeals

30 P.3d 529

108 Wash. App. 388

Cathleen L. SHOOP and Ken Shoop, husband and wife, Appellants, v. KITTITAS COUNTY and John Does I-IV, Respondents.

No. 47088-4-I.

Court of Appeals of Washington, Division 1.

September 10, 2001.

Carl A. Taylor Lopez, Seattle, for Appellants.

Charles William Bailey & Gretchen Salazar, Seattle, for Respondents.

BECKER, A.C.J.

The Legislature has recently manifested its intent that RCW 36.01.050 should be construed as a venue statute. Therefore, when a plaintiff commences suit against a county in the superior court of a county not designated in RCW 36.01.050, the suit need not be dismissed for want of subject matter jurisdiction. We reverse the order of dismissal and remand for transfer to a proper county under the change of venue statute.

The statute at issue, RCW 36.01.050, was first adopted in 1963. Until 1997, it provided that an action against a county could be commenced in an adjoining county: "All actions against any county may be commenced in the superior court of such county, or of the adjoining county, and all actions by any county shall be commenced in the superior court of the county in which the defendant resides, or in the county adjoining the county by which such action is commenced." Laws of 1963, ch. 4.

The Legislature amended the statute in 1997 by the enactment of Senate Bill 5831, effective July 27, 1997. The amended version did not allow commencement of the action in an adjoining county unless it was one of the two "nearest" counties as measured by the administrator for the courts:

(1) All actions against any county may be commenced in the superior court of such county, or in the superior court of either of the two nearest counties. All actions by any county shall be commenced in the superior court of the county in which the defendant resides, or in either of the two counties nearest to the county bringing the action.

(2)The determination of the nearest counties is measured by the travel time between county seats using major surface routes, as determined by the office of the administrator for the courts.[¹]

Appellant Cathleen Shoop was seriously injured in November 1996 in a one-car accident on the icy Cle Elum River bridge, located in Kittitas County. In 1999, she sued Kittitas County in King County. This was a mistake. King County adjoins Kittitas County, but it is not one of the two "nearest" counties. As determined by the administrator for the courts, the two nearest counties were Yakima County and Grant County.²

Kittitas County moved to dismiss on the basis that the superior court of King County lacked subject matter jurisdiction. When a court lacks subject matter jurisdiction in a case, dismissal is the only permissible action the court may take. Inland Foundry Co., Inc. v. Spokane County Air Pollution Control Authority, 98 Wash.App. 121, 123-24, 989 P.2d 102 (1999),KSLW v. City of Renton, 47 Wash.App. 587, 595, 736 P.2d 664 (1986). Dismissal would have the effect of terminating Shoop's claim against Kittitas County because the statute of limitations had run and would bar a newly-filed action. Shoop responded with a motion to transfer venue to Yakima County, which, if granted, would allow her case to proceed within the statute of limitations. See RCW 4.12.030(1)³. The King County Superior Court concluded, however, that because King County was not a proper county for commencement of the action, the King County court lacked subject matter jurisdiction. The court granted the motion to dismiss. Shoop appeals, seeking to have her case reinstated subject to her motion to transfer venue to Yakima County.

For the proposition that King County lacked subject matter jurisdiction, respondent Kittitas County relies on Aydelotte v. Audette, 110 Wash.2d 249, 750 P.2d 1276 (1988), and Cossel v. Skagit County, 119 Wash.2d 434, 834 P.2d 609 (1992). The action in Aydelotte was against a public officer. Under RCW 4.12.020(2), suits against public officers must be tried "in the county where the cause, or some part thereof, arose." The parties tried the case in the wrong county. The court entered judgment on the verdict, and the losing party appealed. The Supreme Court, after reviewing precedent, concluded the judgment had to be vacated and the action dismissed because the court lacked subject matter jurisdiction. The court stated, however, "If our construction of the statute is in error, this may, of course, be rectified by the Legislature." Aydelotte, 110 Wash.2d at 252, 750 P.2d 1276.

In Cossel, the action was against a county for the recovery of damages arising from a motor vehicle accident. The plaintiff commenced suit in an adjacent county. That was a correct choice under former RCW 36.01.050, but it was an incorrect choice under RCW 4.12.020(3).⁴ The defendant county, relying on Aydelotte, obtained an order of dismissal. On appeal, the county took the position that RCW 4.12.020(3) established the court's "jurisdiction", while former RCW 36.01.050 was only a venue statute. To show that RCW 36.01.050 was only a venue statute, the county pointed to its caption in the Revised Code of Washington: "Venue of actions by or against counties". The Supreme Court rejected this argument because "headings are generated by the code reviser, and do not change the meaning of the law unless specifically adopted by the Legislature." Cossel, 119 Wash.2d at 436, n. 1, 834 P.2d 609. The court concluded that both statutes were jurisdictional and complementary. Because a superior court did not lack subject matter jurisdiction in a case commenced in compliance with RCW 36.01.050, the order of dismissal was reversed.

The Legislature enacted the present version of RCW 36.01.050 after Aydelotte and Cossel. Significantly, the legislative title of Senate Bill 5831 was "AN ACT Relating to venue of actions by or against counties." Laws of 1997, ch. 401. Shoop argues that the Legislature, by expressing its intent that RCW 36.01.050 be construed as a venue statute, has now "rectified" the jurisdictional construction the Supreme Court imposed on the former version of the statute in Cossel.

We agree. In contrast to captions generated by the code reviser, the title is a part of the legislative act. The title of a legislative act is a source of legislative intent. Covell v. City of Seattle, 127 Wash.2d 874, 887-88, 905 P.2d 324 (1995). It is clear that Aydelotte and Cossel are exercises in determining legislative intent, and both opinions allow that the Legislature can, by amendment, manifest a different intent than the courts imputed to the original statute. The title of the 1997 amendment to RCW 36.01.050 manifests the Legislature's intent that the act relates to venue. As the Supreme Court held long ago in McWhorter v. Superior Court, 112 Wash. 574, 577, 192 P. 903 (1920), the reasons for requiring actions to be brought or tried in specific counties are important to the Legislature and not to the courts. When the Legislature manifests its intent that a statute relates to venue, there is no reason for a court to insist that it actually relates to subject matter jurisdiction. On this basis, we reverse the order dismissing Shoop's action. We remand to allow transfer of venue.⁵

Shoop also argues that the order of dismissal should be reversed for a different and more fundamental reason: namely, that the superior court's subject matter jurisdiction is constitutional in origin, and does not depend upon statutes. But that argument is inconsistent with Aydelotte and Cossel. These Supreme Court decisions, directly on point, hold that the superior court's subject matter jurisdiction depends upon the provisions of what are commonly thought of as venue statutes. On facts virtually identical to the facts of this case, this court has followed Cossel to affirm the dismissal of a personal injury action commenced in the wrong county. Goggiel v. Okanogan County Mental Health Agency, 104 Wash.App. 485, 487, 17 P.3d 1 (2001). The only difference is that in Goggiel, the appellant did not raise the issue of legislative intent as expressed in the title of the bill amending RCW 36.01.050.

Although precedent compels this court to reject Shoop's second argument, we do not find it to be lacking in merit. The line of cases represented by Aydelotte, Cossel, and Goggiel is difficult to reconcile with a different line of cases indicating that the subject matter jurisdiction of the superior court remains constant, is not dependent on statutory provisions, and does not vary from county to county.

Subject matter jurisdiction is a tribunal's authority to adjudicate the type of controversy involved in the action. "We italicize the phrase `type of controversy' to emphasize its importance." Marley v. Department of Labor & Indus., 125 Wash.2d 533, 539, 886 P.2d 189 (1994). See also In re Fleming, 129 Wash.2d 529, 533, 919 P.2d 66 (1996)

. The Supreme Court explained in Marley that improvident and inconsistent use of the term "subject matter jurisdiction" has caused it to be confused with a court's authority to rule in a particular manner. Marley, 125 Wash.2d at 539,

886 P.2d 189. See also State v. Franks, 105 Wash.App. 950, 954-57, 22 P.3d 269 (2001). "If the phrase is to maintain its rightfully sweeping definition, it must not be reduced to signifying that a court has acted without error." Marley, 125 Wash.2d at 539,

886 P.2d 189, quoting In re Marriage of Major, 71 Wash.App. 531, 535, 859 P.2d 1262 (1993).

The Supreme Court had no occasion to address the venue statutes in Marley, but it is impossible to read Marley without concluding that it has undermined the value of Aydelotte and Cossel as precedents. In focusing on the phrase "type of controversy", the Marley court quoted favorably from a law review article by Robert J. Martineau, Subject Matter Jurisdiction as a New Issue on Appeal: Reining in an Unruly Horse, 1988 B.Y.U. L.Rev. 1 (1988). The article discusses the persistently thorny analytical problem presented by...