Christopher v. Spooner

640 S.W.2d 833, 1982 Tenn. App. LEXIS 418
CourtCourt of Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedJanuary 5, 1982
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 640 S.W.2d 833 (Christopher v. Spooner) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Christopher v. Spooner, 640 S.W.2d 833, 1982 Tenn. App. LEXIS 418 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1982).

Opinion

OPINION

CONNER, Judge.

The sole issue raised is when is a general sessions judgment rendered so that the one-year statute of limitations on the refiling of a case that has been non-suited begins to run.

This tort action was instituted in the Montgomery County General Sessions Court on January 7, 1977. Thereafter, the plaintiff-appellant, Elizabeth W. Christopher,1 moved for a non-suit, which was granted by the general sessions judge on March 30,1979. An order to this effect was signed by the judge and by the attorneys for both parties and filed with the clerk of the court on that same day. However, for some unexplained reason the clerk failed to make an entry on the docket book of the court and the order of non-suit was misplaced in the clerk’s office. Subsequently, on July 2,1979, a notation was finally made on the docket book as required by T.C.A. § 16-15-4052 that the case had been dismissed for lack of prosecution.

Thereafter, on July 2, 1980, some fifteen months after the date on which the non-suit was originally granted, but within one year of the date of the entry in the docket book, Mrs. Christopher brought her claim a second time in the Montgomery County Circuit Court. The defendants moved to dismiss the action arguing that it was barred by the statute of limitations. The motion was granted. The plaintiff appeals.

It is plaintiffs contention that the judgment was not rendered until July 2, 1979, when the dismissal was entered in the docket book. We respectfully disagree.

It was mandatory that Mrs. Christopher bring her action within one year from the time that the previous dismissal was rendered in order not to be time barred. T.C.A. § 28-1-105.3

We believe the judgment herein was rendered for purposes of T.C.A. § 28-1-105 on March 30, 1979, when the general sessions judge signed a written order, approved by both counsel, dismissing plaintiffs suit, and filed that order with the clerk of that court. The failure of the clerk at that time to make a notation in the docket book does not adversely affect the [835]*835previously rendered decision of the court. The clerk’s failure to timely perform this-ministerial function should not extend plaintiffs rights under T.C.A. § 28-1-105. General sessions courts are not courts of record and do not maintain formal minutes as do such courts. The statute which requires maintenance of a docket book in sessions court, T.C.A. § 16-15-405, supra, in no way purports to set an effective date for orders of sessions judges, or what would be the effect of failure of the clerk to note orders of the judges in the docket book. Further, substantial compliance with the “docket book” statute renders a judgment valid as to litigants. T.C.A. § 16-15-405(c), supra. See also McCarver v. Jenkins, 49 Tenn. 629 (1870).

Generally, a judgment is rendered when it is pronounced or announced by the court. Black’s Law Dictionary 1460 (Rev. 4th ed. 1975). The judicial act or rendition is to be distinguished from the ministerial action of entering a judgment. 49 C.J.S. Judgments § 100 (1974).

Tennessee courts are in accord with these general statements in their interpretation of when a judgment is rendered. In Jackson v. Jarrett, 165 Tenn. 76, 52 S.W.2d 137 (1932), the supreme court was faced with the construction of a statute requiring application for rehearing at the term of court at which the judgment was rendered. The court stated:

“Rendered” means expressed or announced in a conclusive manner and with decisive effect, certainly so when at the same time notation of it is made on a judgment docket, or other more or less permanent memorandum record kept by the Judge for the purpose. “The rendition of judgment, and the entry of judgment, are different and distinct, each from the other. The former is the act of the court, while the latter is the act of the clerk of the court. * * * To render judgment is to return or give judgment; and it can not be said, in our opinion', that the phrase, in any of its forms, includes the idea of making a written entry or record of a judgment. Anderson v. Mitchell, 58 Ind. 594; Gray v. Palmer, 28 Cal. 416.
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In Ency. of P. P. vol. 2, p. 249, it is said:

“The prevailing rule construes a statute requiring an appeal to be taken within a defined statutory period after the ‘rendition’ of the judgment as mandatory (citing numerous authorities), and requires the time to appeal to be computed from the date of the actual rendition, and not from the entry.”

Id. at 79-80, 52 S.W.2d at 138. Accord see: McCown v. Quillin, 48 Tenn.App. 162, 168-171, 344 S.W.2d 576, 579-580 (1960); Shepard v. Lanier, 192 Tenn. 608, 615, 241 S.W.2d 587, 590 (1951). Even though the Jackson court determined that the party adversely affected was not compelled to move until legal effect is given the rendition of the judgment by entry thereof on the minutes of the court, Jackson v. Jarrett, supra at 81, 52 S.W.2d at 138, we do not believe that holding applicable to either the statute in question or to courts not of record.

We believe the case of Collins v. Williams, 162 Tenn. 262, 36 S.W.2d 93 (1931) is dispositive. There, the justice of the peace rendered judgment on May 2, 1929, but failed to enter it until November 7, 1929. At that time he entered a nunc pro tunc judgment. The defendants questioned the propriety of the nunc pro tunc judgment, but it was sustained. In Collins our supreme court, speaking through Mr. Justice McKinney, in reference to an earlier version of the docket book statute, T.C.A. § 16-14-405, supra, stated:

It will be observed that the statute does not limit the time within which a judgment rendered shall be entered on the docket.
... “A judgment is ‘rendered,’ within the meaning of regulations as to the time of rendition, when it is made up and announced by the justice, or a memorandum thereof is made, and not when the judgment is entered.” (Emphasis supplied.)

[836]*836Id. at 264, 265, 36 S.W.2d at 94; see also Carter v. Board of Zoning Appeals of the City of Nashville, 214 Tenn.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
640 S.W.2d 833, 1982 Tenn. App. LEXIS 418, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/christopher-v-spooner-tennctapp-1982.