State v. Recht ex rel. Situated

• Decision Date: 17 January 2013
• Docket Number: No. 12–0737.,12–0737.
• Parties: STATE of West Virginia ex rel. ADVANCE STORES COMPANY, INC., dba Advance Auto Parts, and Donn Free, Defendants Below, Petitioners v. Honorable Arthur M. RECHT, Senior Status Judge of the Circuit Court of Ohio County, and Scott McMahon and Karen John, Individually and on Behalf of Others Similarly Situated, Plaintiffs Below, Respondents.
• Court: West Virginia Supreme Court

230 W.Va. 464

740 S.E.2d 59

STATE of West Virginia ex rel. ADVANCE STORES COMPANY, INC., dba Advance Auto Parts, and Donn Free, Defendants Below, Petitioners

v.Honorable Arthur M. RECHT, Senior Status Judge of the Circuit Court of Ohio County, and Scott McMahon and Karen John, Individually and on Behalf of Others Similarly Situated, Plaintiffs Below, Respondents.

No. 12–0737.

Supreme Court of Appeals of

West Virginia.

Submitted Jan. 9, 2013.

Decided Jan. 17, 2013.

Syllabus by the Court

1. “When this Court remands a case to the circuit court, the remand can be either general or limited in scope. Limited remands explicitly outline the issues to be addressed by the circuit court and create a narrow framework within which the circuit court must operate. General remands, in contrast, give circuit courts authority to address all matters as long as remaining consistent with the remand.” Syllabus point 2, State ex rel. Frazier & Oxley, L.C. v. Cummings, 214 W.Va. 802, 591 S.E.2d 728 (2003).

2. When the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia remands a case to a circuit court after answering a certified question, the remand ordinarily is limited.Ancil G. Ramey, Karen E. Kahle, Hannah B. Curry, Steptoe & Johnson, Huntington, WV, for Petitioners.

Anthony I. Werner, Bachmann Hess Bachmann & Garden, Wheeling, WV, Joseph J. John, John Law Offices, Wheeling, WV, for Respondents.

DAVIS, Justice:

This case was brought under this Court's original jurisdiction by Advance Stores Company and its employee Donn Free, petitioners herein and defendants below (collectively “Advance Stores”). Advance Stores seeks a writ of prohibition to prevent enforcement of an order of the Circuit Court of Ohio County that denied, in part, Advance Stores' motion to dismiss a third amended complaint filed by Scott McMahon and Karen John, respondents herein and plaintiffs below (collectively “plaintiffs”).¹ Advance Stores contends that in denying, in part, their motion to dismiss, the circuit court is permitting the case to be litigated in a manner that exceeds this Court's mandate in McMahon v. Advance Stores Co., 227 W.Va. 21, 705 S.E.2d 131 (2010) (hereinafter “ McMahon I ”).² After a careful review of the briefs, the limited record, and listening to the arguments of the parties, we grant the writ of prohibition.

I.FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

In March 2004, Scott McMahon purchased a car battery from Advance Stores. ³ Mr. McMahon subsequently sold the automobile and battery to Karen John. Shortly after Ms. John purchased the automobile, the battery died. Advance Stores was asked to replace the battery under a limited express warranty. Advance Stores refused to provide a free replacement of the battery on the grounds that Ms. John was not the original purchaser, and the limited warranty expired when Mr. McMahon sold the vehicle with the battery. The plaintiffs eventually filed an action against Advance Stores.⁴ Subsequent to a period of discovery, the circuit court granted partial summary judgment in favor of the plaintiffs on the issue of enforcement of the warranty. However, rather than allow the case to proceed to trial, the circuit court certified a question to this Court. The certified question asked this Court to determine whether W. Va.Code § 46A–6–108(a) of the West Virginia Consumer Credit and Protection Act “appl[ies] to suits for breach of limited warranty by subsequent purchasers where the limited warranty involved limits its availability to original purchasers?” McMahon I, 227 W.Va. at 22, 705 S.E.2d at 132. We answered the certified question in the negative and held the following:

W. Va.Code § 46A–6–108(a) does not apply to suits for breach of a limited warranty by subsequent purchasers where the limited express warranty involved specifically limits its availability to original purchasers.

Syl. pt. 2, McMahon I, 227 W.Va. 21, 705 S.E.2d 131.

After answering the certified question, this Court “remand[ed] this matter to the Circuit Court of Ohio County for further proceedings consistent with th[e] opinion.” McMahon I, 227 W.Va. at 27, 705 S.E.2d at 137. While the case was pending on remand, the trial court allowed the plaintiffs to amend the complaint to add an additional cause of action for a violation of the federal Magnuson–Moss Warranty Act, 15 U.S.C.A. § 2301 et seq. In addition, the plaintiffs premised their cause of action on the actual receipt that was given for the purchase of the battery, i.e., alleging the receipt was a purported express warranty.⁵Advance Stores moved to dismiss the third amended complaint on various grounds, including the contention that the amendments exceeded the scope of the mandate issued in McMahon I. The trial court denied the motion to dismiss in part,⁶ and allowed the third amended complaint to go forward on the new theories. Advance Stores thereafter filed the instant petition for a writ of prohibition.

II.STANDARD OF REVIEW

Advance Stores asserts that the circuit court ignored the mandate of this Court in McMahon I. We have held that “[a] circuit court's interpretation of a mandate of this Court and whether the circuit court complied with such mandate are questions of law that are reviewed de novo.” Syl. pt. 4, State ex rel. Frazier & Oxley, L.C. v. Cummings, 214 W.Va. 802, 591 S.E.2d 728 (2003) (hereinafter “Frazier and Oxley II ”). It also was held in syllabus point 5 of Frazier & Oxley II that “[w]hen a circuit court fails or refuses to obey or give effect to the mandate of this Court, misconstrues it, or acts beyond its province in carrying it out, the writ of prohibition is an appropriate means of enforcing compliance with the mandate.” Id. In Syllabus point 4 of State ex rel. Hoover v. Berger, 199 W.Va. 12, 483 S.E.2d 12 (1996), we explained that,

[i]n determining whether to entertain and issue the writ of prohibition for cases not involving an absence of jurisdiction but only where it is claimed that the lower tribunal exceeded its legitimate powers, this Court will examine five factors: (1) whether the party seeking the writ has no other adequate means, such as direct appeal, to obtain the desired relief; (2) whether the petitioner will be damaged or prejudiced in a way that is not correctable on appeal; (3) whether the lower tribunal's order is clearly erroneous as a matter of law; (4) whether the lower tribunal's order is an oft repeated error or manifests persistent disregard for either procedural or substantive law; and (5) whether the lower tribunal's order raises new and important problems or issues of law of first impression. These factors are general guidelines that serve as a useful starting point for determining whether a discretionary writ of prohibition should issue. Although all five factors need not be satisfied, it is clear that the third factor, the existence of clear error as a matter of law, should be given substantial weight.

With these standards in view, we turn to the issues presented by this case.

III.DISCUSSION

The issues presented by Advance Stores may be divided into two parts. First, Advance Stores contends that the mandate in McMahon I did not allow the plaintiffs to amend their complaint on remand. Second, Advance Stores has attacked the merits of the amendment and its application to various legal theories. We need only address the first issue, i.e., whether the circuit court exceeded the scope of the mandate in McMahon I by allowing the complaint to be amended. Because we determine that the circuit court did, in fact, exceed the scope of the remand, we need not discuss the second issue.

This Court extensively discussed the scope of a mandate in the seminal case of Frazier & Oxley II, which was before this Court on a writ of prohibition for the second time. In the first proceeding, State ex rel. Frazier & Oxley, L.C. v. Cummings, 212 W.Va. 275, 569 S.E.2d 796 (2002) (hereinafter “Frazier & Oxley I ”), the circuit court entered a partial summary judgment order that required the defendants to vacate an office that was being subleased from the plaintiffs. This Court prevented enforcement of the partial summary judgment order in Frazier & Oxley I and remanded the case to the circuit court to conduct proceedings for a factual determination of whether a surrender of the lease occurred. After the case was remanded, one of the plaintiffs was allowed to amend the complaint to assert a different theory for voiding the lease.⁷ The defendants filed a petition for a writ of prohibition seeking to prevent enforcement of the circuit court's order allowing the plaintiff to amend the complaint. The defendants argued in Frazier & Oxley II that the circuit court's decision to allow the plaintiff to amend the complaint exceeded the mandate of this Court in Frazier & Oxley I.

We agreed with the defendants in Frazier & Oxley II that the mandate in Frazier & Oxley I did not allow the plaintiff to amend the complaint to assert a new theory for voiding the lease. The opinion in Frazier & Oxley II noted that, even though no language appeared in Frazier & Oxley I that expressly limited what could occur on remand, the remand was limited.⁸ In Syllabus points 2 and 3 of Frazier & Oxley II we set out the following remand guidelines:

2. When this Court remands a case to the circuit court, the remand can be either general or limited in scope. Limited remands explicitly outline the issues to be addressed by the circuit court and create a narrow framework within which the circuit court must operate. General remands, in contrast, give circuit courts authority to address all matters as long as remaining consistent with the remand.

3. Upon remand of a case for further proceedings after a decision by this Court, the circuit court must proceed in accordance with the mandate and the law of the case as established on appeal. The trial court must implement both the letter and the spirit of the mandate, taking into account the appellate court's opinion and the circumstances it embraces.⁹

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