W.A.A. v. Bd. of Dental Examiners of Ala.
Decision Date | 13 June 2014 |
Docket Number | 2121026. |
Citation | 156 So.3d 973 |
Parties | W.A.A. v. BOARD OF DENTAL EXAMINERS OF ALABAMA. |
Court | Alabama Court of Civil Appeals |
Davis B. Whittelsey and Jonathan K. Corley of Whittelsey, Whittelsey & Poole, P.C., Opelika, for appellant.
Susan F. Wilhelm and Donna L. Dixon, deputy attys. gen., Board of Dental Examiners of Alabama, Hoover, for appellee.
W.A.A. (“the practitioner”), a dental practitioner licensed by the Board of Dental Examiners of Alabama (“the Board”), appeals from orders entered by the Jefferson Circuit Court purporting to (a) grant in part and deny in part a motion filed in the circuit court by Addiction & Mental Health Services, Inc., a corporate entity doing business under the name “Bradford Health Services” (“Bradford”), seeking to quash a number of subpoenas issued to certain employees of Bradford by the Board's hearing officer in an administrative disciplinary hearing involving the practitioner, and (b) granting a motion, filed in the circuit court by the Board after Bradford filed its motion, seeking to compel the practitioner to “fully answer” certain interrogatories and requests for production directed by the Board to the practitioner. Because the circuit court lacked subject-matter jurisdiction to enter the orders as to which the practitioner has sought appellate review, we dismiss the appeal ex mero motu as arising from void orders.
Much of the material procedural history was aptly summarized in a memorandum opinion prepared in June 2013 by Judge William M. Acker, Jr., of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama (“the federal court”) in considering whether the federal courts had subject-matter jurisdiction in this cause:
In re W.A.A., Civil Action No. 2:13–cv–00623–WMA (N.D. Ala., June 3, 2013) (not reported in Federal Supplement). The federal court concluded that the removal of the case by the practitioner had been procedurally and substantively improper and remanded the case to the circuit court. See id.
After the case was remanded to the circuit court, that court set Bradford's motion to quash for a hearing on July 9, 2013. Before that hearing could occur, however, the Board filed in the case a motion requesting that the court compel the practitioner to comply with a May 7, 2013, order of the Board's hearing officer requiring the practitioner to answer certain interrogatories and requests for production notwithstanding the practitioner's claim of privilege. On July 23, 2013, the circuit court, after the conclusion of its hearing on both Bradford's motion and the Board's motion, issued an order purporting to grant Bradford's motion to quash the subpoenas directed to six particular witnesses (but denying it as to the subpoenas issued to four other witnesses) and an order purporting to require the practitioner to respond to the interrogatories and production requests as to which the practitioner had lodged privilege objections. After the practitioner's appeal from those orders had been transferred to this court by our supreme court, we requested letter briefs concerning whether the orders from which the practitioner had sought to appeal amounted to a final judgment under Ala.Code 1975, § 12–22–2 ; upon receipt of those briefs, we permitted the appeal to proceed through briefing on the merits, during which the Board filed a motion to dismiss the appeal as moot in light of the rendition of a final disciplinary order on October 31, 2013, in the underlying administrative proceeding that had been brought by the Board against the practitioner—an order that was rendered based, in part, upon the testimony before the Board of two witnesses from Bradford as to which the Board had issued subpoenas.
Although this court initially allowed briefing on the merits, “such permission ‘does not preclude reconsideration of the fundamental question of appellate jurisdiction after an appellate court has had an opportunity to review the record.’ ” R.P.M. v. P.D.A., 112 So.3d 49, 50 (Ala.Civ.App.2012) (quoting Smith v. Smith, 919 So.2d 315, 316 n. 1...
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W.A.A. v. Bd. of Dental Examiners of Ala., 2130828.
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