Ward v. Lupinacci

• Decision Date: 30 May 1986
• Docket Number: No. 15922,15922
• Citation: 111 Idaho 40,720 P.2d 223
• Parties: Odetta M. WARD and Dorothy Kelby, Plaintiffs-Respondents-Cross-Appellants, v. Eddie LUPINACCI, Frank Lupinacci, and Wood By-Products, Inc., an Idaho corporation, Defendants-Appellants-Cross-Respondents.
• Court: Idaho Court of Appeals

Page 223

720 P.2d 223

111 Idaho 40

Odetta M. WARD and Dorothy Kelby, Plaintiffs-Respondents-Cross-Appellants, v. Eddie LUPINACCI, Frank Lupinacci, and Wood By-Products, Inc., an Idaho corporation, Defendants-Appellants-Cross-Respondents.

No. 15922.

Court of Appeals of Idaho.

May 30, 1986.

Petition for Review Denied July 30, 1986.

James W. Givens, Lewiston, for defendants-appellants-cross-respondents.

Daniel L. Spickler, Rapaich, Knutson & Stellmon, Lewiston, for plaintiffs-respondents-cross-appellants.

BURNETT, Judge.

This case presents two questions. First, does a trial court have jurisdiction to enter judgment on a verdict if twenty-three months have elapsed since the verdict was returned? Second, if failure to enter the judgment without delay was simply an oversight, should the judgment now be made nunc pro tunc? For reasons explained below, we answer both questions in the affirmative.

These issues are framed by undisputed facts. Odetta Ward and Dorothy Kelby sued Wood By-Products, Inc., together with Eddie and Frank Lupinacci, for damages arising from a motor vehicle accident. The defendants referred the claim to their insurance company. However, in a separate action for a declaratory judgment, the claim was held to be outside the scope of insurance coverage. See Mutual of Enumclaw Insurance Co. v. Wood By-Products, Inc., 107 Idaho 1024, 695 P.2d 409 (Ct.App.1984).

While the insurance dispute was pending, the instant case was tried. The jury returned an interrogatory verdict, finding that Eddie Lupinacci, an employee of Wood By-Products, negligently had operated a motor vehicle, proximately causing damage to the plaintiffs in the sum of $61,600. The judge accepted the verdict in open court, ordered it to be filed, and discharged the jury. No post-trial motions challenging the verdict were submitted. Costs and attorney fees eventually were awarded to the plaintiffs.

Nearly two years later, after the insurance litigation had run its course, plaintiffs' counsel undertook to collect upon the defendants' liability. He then found that no judgment ever had been entered upon the verdict. Counsel moved for entry of a judgment, asking that it be made nunc pro tunc. The defendants resisted the motion, arguing that the court had lost jurisdiction to enter any judgment and, even if jurisdiction existed, the judgment should not be nunc pro tunc. The district judge ruled that the court possessed jurisdiction to enter judgment but he declined to give the judgment nunc pro tunc effect. The defendants appealed, reiterating their argument concerning lack of jurisdiction. The plaintiffs cross-appealed, contending that the district court abused its discretion by failing to grant the full relief sought.

I

We first consider the issue of jurisdiction. The defendants invite our attention to Rule 58(a), I.R.C.P. That rule provides, in pertinent part, as follows: "Unless the court otherwise directs ... judgment upon the verdict of the jury shall be entered forthwith by the clerk; but the court shall direct the appropriate judgment be entered upon a special verdict...." (Emphasis added.) ¹ The defendants assert that unless judgment is entered "forthwith"--or at least within a reasonable time--the court loses its power to enter any judgment at all. Unfortunately for the defendants, their able counsel has been unable to cite an Idaho decision so holding. Although counsel urges that a jurisdictional cutoff is implied or "suggested" by the rule, we disagree. As a matter of policy, any jurisdictional consequence of a rule should be plainly expressed in the rule itself. Loss of jurisdiction should not be a subtle creature of inference, lurking as a threat to the unwary. Moreover, rules and statutes similar or analogous to Rule 58(a) have been held directory, not jurisdictional. E.g., Western Savings & Loan Association v. Diamond Lazy K Guest Ranch, Inc., 18 Ariz.App. 256, 501 P.2d 432 (1972); State v. Vella, 213 Or. 386, 323 P.2d 941 (1958).

When a court properly acquires jurisdiction over the parties, and over the subject matter of a controversy, that jurisdiction continues until extinguished by some event. The court's power to enter judgment, and even to correct a judgment or the record so that it accurately reflects action taken by the court, "is not lost by the lapse of time." Donaldson v. Henry, 63 Idaho 467, 473, 121 P.2d 445, 447 (1942), quoting State v. Douglass, 35 Idaho 140, 147, 208 P. 236, 238 (1922). In this case we conclude that the district court had jurisdiction to enter judgment upon the verdict, despite the unusual lapse of time.

II

We now turn to the plaintiffs' contention that the judgment should have been entered nunc pro tunc. This Latin phrase literally means "now for then." When used in a judgment, the phrase signifies a relation back to a designated date, indicating that the judgment will be given anterior effect. In this case the anterior effect sought by the plaintiffs is an accrual of interest on the judgment from the date when it should have been entered. ²

The decision to give, or not to give, a judgment nunc pro tunc effect is said to be vested in the sound discretion of the trial court. State v. Rider, 201 La. 733, 10 So.2d 601 (1942). See generally 49 C.J.S. Judgments § 259 (1947); 46 AM.JUR.2D Judgments §§ 186-198 (1969). Accepting that characterization for the sake of discussion, our next inquiry is whether the court in this case exercised its discretion consistently with applicable rules of law. The district judge explained his decision as follows:

It has been the intent, it has been the practice of this Court and as far as I'm--to my knowledge to other courts of the state that a judgment is usually prepared by the prevailing party on a jury verdict and that until the judgment is entered the events which are triggered by the entry of a judgment do not start to take place.

....

It was my intent that at a later time a judgment would be presented to me in compliance with the jury verdict and that time I would sign it.

....

The judgment nunc pro tunc should be entered in order to reflect some action that was actually taken or to reflect what has happened to put the record into a state as to show what actually happened at a time that has passed.

I find that to grant the judgment nunc pro tunc at this time would not reflect what actually happened and as far as I'm concerned and for that reason ... I'm going to deny your motion.

This explanation reflects a tension between two sets of seemingly antipodal rules or practices. The first conflict relates to the circumstances in which nunc pro tunc orders or judgments are appropriate. It is widely held that such judgments may be entered in furtherance of justice where failure to enter an earlier judgment was due to accident, excusable oversight or mistake. See, e.g., Briseno v. Perry, 417 So.2d 813 (Fla.Dist.Ct.App.1982); Hunt v. Williams, 104 Ga.App. 442, 122 S.E.2d 149 (1961); State v. Hatley, 72 N.M. 377, 384 P.2d 252 (1963); Karpuk v. Karpuk, 177 Misc. 729, 31 N.Y.S.2d 769 (1941); State v. Rankin, 154 Ohio St. 23, 93 N.E.2d 281 (1950); Grizzard v. Fite, 191 S.W. 969 (Tenn.1917). However, it also has been stated that a judgment may not be given nunc pro tunc effect to correct a judicial error, as opposed to a clerical error; neither may it contain a ruling or recite an event that did not actually occur. E.g., Donaldson v. Henry, supra; Fall River Irrigation Co. v. Swendsen, 41 Idaho 686, 241 P. 1021 (1925); In re Tabery, 14 Wash.App. 271, 540 P.2d 474 (1975).

The second conflict relates to responsibility for seeing that a judgment is timely entered. Evidently, it has been a practice of the court below--and of many trial courts in Idaho--to enter judgment when the appropriate instrument is prepared and submitted by the prevailing party. The custom of obtaining such assistance from prevailing parties is recognized by Rule 77(d), I.R.C.P., which requires a party preparing a judgment to furnish copies, along with addressed envelopes and postage, to the court for service by mail. But Rule 58(a), quoted above, provides that the "court," or in some instances the "clerk," must enter judgment "forthwith."

We believe these apparent conflicts can and should be reconciled. The availability of nunc pro tunc relief to achieve justice is not entirely defeated by the cited cases that declare a prohibition against correcting judicial errors or reciting events that did not occur. In Donaldson v. Henry, supra, our Supreme Court allowed correction of a defective decree of foreclosure, nunc pro tunc, in order to remedy a failure to designate the party personally liable for the mortgage debt. The Supreme Court noted that the trial...