Berg ex rel. Estate v. Benton

443 P.3d 714, 297 Or. App. 323
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedMay 1, 2019
DocketA165572
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 443 P.3d 714 (Berg ex rel. Estate v. Benton) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Berg ex rel. Estate v. Benton, 443 P.3d 714, 297 Or. App. 323 (Or. Ct. App. 2019).

Opinion

ORTEGA, P. J.

*325Defendant appeals a judgment awarding money damages to plaintiff, the personal representative of the Deborah Higbee estate, in a wrongful death action. Defendant was accused of participating in Higbee's murder and, after a jury trial, he was convicted of two counts of aggravated murder, one count of attempted murder, and two counts of conspiracy to commit murder. During the wrongful death proceeding, plaintiff filed a motion for partial summary judgment asserting that liability and causation were established in defendant's criminal case and, therefore, issue preclusion barred defendant from relitigating those same issues in this civil case. Defendant argued that he intended *716to appeal his criminal convictions and filed a motion to postpone the court's ruling on plaintiff's motion until after his criminal appeal was resolved. However, the trial court granted plaintiff's motion for partial summary judgment, resulting in a denial of defendant's motion for postponement and, on appeal, defendant assigns error to both rulings. Because we conclude that defendant did not establish a basis for avoiding summary judgment based on whether he had a full and fair opportunity to be heard on the issue sought to be precluded, and likewise did not establish that the trial court acted outside the range of allowable discretion in denying the motion to postpone, we affirm.

Summary judgment is appropriate if there is no genuine issue of material fact for trial and the moving party is entitled to prevail as a matter of law. ORCP 47 C. To determine whether a genuine issue of material fact exists in this case, we review the summary judgment record in the light most favorable to defendant-the nonmoving party-and draw all reasonable inferences in defendant's favor. Jones v. General Motors Corp. , 325 Or. 404, 408, 939 P.2d 608 (1997). We state the facts consistently with that standard.

Higbee was defendant's wife at the time of her murder. Defendant was accused of soliciting and paying others to kill Higbee, and the state charged him with several counts of aggravated murder, attempted murder, and conspiracy to commit murder. Defendant was taken into custody and was awaiting trial when plaintiff-Higbee's mother and personal *326representative of her estate-filed a wrongful death action requesting noneconomic damages for the loss caused by defendant's actions. Because defendant's criminal trial had not yet occurred, the court placed the wrongful death case in abatement.

During that criminal trial, the state had to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that defendant was criminally liable for Higbee's death, which required the state to prove that defendant's actions caused Higbee's death. After a lengthy trial, the jury returned a unanimous guilty verdict on two counts of aggravated murder, one count of attempted murder, and two counts of conspiracy to commit murder; defendant was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Defendant filed a notice of appeal, but plaintiff's wrongful death case was removed from abatement.

Plaintiff filed a motion for partial summary judgment on liability and causation. Specifically, plaintiff asserted that, because "there are no remaining issues regarding the liability of defendant for the death of plaintiff's decedent, and that defendant caused the death of plaintiff's decedent, partial summary judgment in favor of plaintiff of the issue of liability should be granted." Defendant responded that the trial court "should either deny the motion for partial summary judgment, or postpone a ruling on it until defendant's criminal appeal is over" because it "would be unfair and illegal to grant summary judgment based solely on the criminal conviction when a criminal appeal is pending." As a result, defendant contended that the judgment in his criminal case could not be given preclusive effect in the civil case while his appeal is still pending and later filed a motion to postpone the court's ruling on plaintiff's summary judgment motion.

The court ultimately granted plaintiff's motion for partial summary judgment and denied defendant's motion for a postponement, concluding that there was no "dispute that [a] criminal judgment of this nature could be the basis for issue preclusion on liability and causation" based on the circumstances of this case and that "Oregon law provides that a judgment that is on appeal is still preclusive."

On appeal, defendant assigns error to the trial court's grant of partial summary judgment in favor of plaintiff on *327the basis of issue preclusion. He also assigns error to the denial of his motion for postponement, asserting that entering judgment in this case impacted his criminal appeal.

In arguing that the court erred in granting partial summary judgment, defendant asserts that judgment in his criminal case should not be given preclusive effect. Specifically, defendant contends that, while his appeal is still pending, he has yet to have a full and fair opportunity to defend his conviction because all of his options to challenge his *717conviction have not been exhausted. Furthermore, defendant argues that "because of the risk of asserting * * * arguments prematurely, with the criminal appeal not yet briefed, it is unfair to impose issue preclusion on defendant, when he cannot even appeal that effectively." Therefore, he contends that the trial court's grant of partial summary judgment was improper. In response, plaintiff asserts that issue preclusion applied and that defendant cannot relitigate liability and causation given that the state proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt and the jury returned a unanimous verdict.

We review whether the trial court erred in applying issue preclusion for errors of law. City of Portland v. Huffman , 264 Or. App. 312, 315, 331 P.3d 1105 (2014). Under the doctrine of issue preclusion, "[i]f one tribunal has decided an issue, the decision on that issue may preclude relitigation of the issue in another proceeding if five requirements are met: (1) '[t]he issue in the two proceedings is identical'; (2) '[t]he issue was actually litigated and was essential to a final decision on the merits in the prior proceeding'; (3) '[t]he party sought to be precluded has had a full and fair opportunity to be heard on that issue'; (4) '[t]he party sought to be precluded was a party or was in privity with a party to the prior proceeding'; and (5) '[t]he prior proceeding was the type of proceeding to which this court will give preclusive effect.' " Nelson v. Emerald People's Utility Dist. , 318 Or.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Moodenbaugh v. OSP
343 Or. App. 178 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2025)
Tracy Lampron Cloud
D. Oregon, 2024
Duckworth v. Duckworth
Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2023
Underwood v. City of Portland
510 P.3d 918 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2022)
Marshall v. PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP
505 P.3d 40 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2021)
Kirresh v. Gill
482 P.3d 76 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2021)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
443 P.3d 714, 297 Or. App. 323, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/berg-ex-rel-estate-v-benton-orctapp-2019.