Ellis v. Roberts

725 P.2d 886, 302 Or. 6
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedSeptember 24, 1986
DocketTC 86C-11483; CA A41175; SC S33173
StatusPublished
Cited by52 cases

This text of 725 P.2d 886 (Ellis v. Roberts) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ellis v. Roberts, 725 P.2d 886, 302 Or. 6 (Or. 1986).

Opinion

*8 GILLETTE, J.

This is an action brought under both the declaratory judgments act, ORS 28.010 et seq, and ORS 246.910(1). 1 Plaintiffs are two Oregon residents and registered voters whose more particular interest in this controversy will be detailed below. Defendant Roberts is the Secretary of State. Defendant Frohnmayer is the Attorney General and principal legal adviser to the Secretary of State concerning her duties under the state election laws. Defendants Wolverton, Wyers and Hendricksen are the principal sponsors of Ballot Measure 11, which the Secretary of State has certified for placement on the November 4,1986, general election ballot. Plaintiffs claim that Ballot Measure 11 violates the “one subject only” clause in Oregon Constitution, Article IV, section l(2)(d), and that the Secretary of State’s certification of the measure is therefore unlawful. They seek injunctive and other relief designed to keep Ballot Measure 11 off the ballot. The trial court found that these plaintiffs are barred by laches. It dismissed the case. The case comes here on certification from the Court of Appeals. ORS 19.210. We affirm the judgment of the trial court, but on a different ground.

JURISDICTION OF THIS COURT

This case has been delayed by certain procedural and jurisdictional difficulties. The trial court’s judgment dismissing plaintiffs case was signed on August 25, 1986. As it happened, however, the judgment was not entered in the trial court register 2 until August 28,1986. In the meantime, plain *9 tiffs filed a notice of appeal on August 26. Attached to it was a copy of the signed (but not yet registered) August 25 judgment. That notice of appeal was premature; there was not yet a judgment from which an appeal could be taken.

Plaintiffs, realizing that their first notice of appeal was premature, filed an amended notice of appeal on September 5, 1986. This notice was correct as to form and was timely. However, another problem existed. ORS 19.033(1) provides:

“When the notice of appeal has been served and filed as provided in ORS 19.023, 19.026 and 19.029, the Supreme Court or the Court of Appeals shall have jurisdiction of the cause, pursuant to rules of the court, but the trial court shall have such powers in connection with the appeal as are conferred upon it by law and shall retain jurisdiction for the purpose of allowance and taxation of attorney fees, costs and disbursements or expenses pursuant to rule or statute. * * *”

This court has recognized that the pendency of an appeal deprives a trial court of authority to make substantive rulings, Nickerson and Nickerson, 296 Or 516, 522-23, 678 P2d 730 (1984), and the Court of Appeals has long held that, in cases like the present one, filing a notice of appeal divests a trial court of jurisdiction subsequently to enter a judgment — see, e.g., Murray Well-Drilling v. Deisch, 75 Or App 1, 704 P2d 1159 (1985). It follows that plaintiffs’ appeal of August 25 was not taken from a judgment or other final order, ORS 19.010, but did serve to oust the trial court of jurisdiction so that the actual entering of the judgment on August 28 was ineffectual and the subsequent, September 5, appeal was also premature. There was, as yet, no final, appealable judgment in this case.

The foregoing problem was pointed out to counsel at oral argument. Supplemental memoranda were requested and received from the parties. Both parties asked that, rather than dismiss the appeal, this court follow the procedure set out in ORS 19.033(4). That statutory subsection, enacted in 1985 (Oregon Laws 1985, chapter 734, section 5), provides:

* * * *
“(4) Notwithstanding the filing of a notice of appeal, the trial court shall have jurisdiction, with leave of the appellate court, to enter an appealable judgment if the appellate court determines that:
*10 “(a) At the time of the filing of the notice of appeal the trial court intended to enter an appealable judgment; and
“(b) The judgment from which the appeal is taken is defective in form or was entered at a time when the trial court did not have jurisdiction of the cause under subsection (1) of this section, or the trial court had not yet entered an appealable judgment.”

Having determined that the criteria of ORS 19.033(4) (a) and (b) had been met, this court accepted the parties’ recommendations and entered an order on September 11,1986, that gave the trial court leave to enter an appealable judgment. The trial court entered such a judgment on September 19,1986, and the plaintiffs filed a proper notice of appeal on September 23, 1986. The case is now properly before us. 3

LACHES

Plaintiff Ellis is the president and plaintiff Crumpton is the executive secretary of the Oregon Education Association (OEA). Ballot .Measure 11, which creates a homestead exemption from property taxes and also prohibits the legislature from enacting or referring to the people a general sales tax, is opposed by OEA. OEA supports a competing measure, Ballot Measure 7, which would enact a sales tax.

The elements of laches are delay by a party, with knowledge of relevant facts under which it could have acted earlier, to the substantial prejudice of an opposing party. See Stephan v. Equitable S & L Assn., 268 Or 544, 569, 522 P2d 478 (1974). Plaintiffs and OEA have been aware, at least in general terms, of the existence of Ballot Measure 11 since the prospective petition was filed with the Secretary of State on April 30,1985, and approved for circulation by her on August 16, 1985. All of the defendants, in their answers to plaintiffs’ complaint, alleged as an affirmative defense that plaintiffs were therefore guilty of laches.

In the trial court, both sides moved for summary judgment on the laches issue. Affidavits were filed by both *11 sides. On August 22, 1986, the trial court held an extensive hearing that included taking testimony from four witnesses. The matter was taken under advisement and, on August 25, the court announced its judgment, holding that these two plaintiffs were barred by laches. The judge explained,

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
725 P.2d 886, 302 Or. 6, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ellis-v-roberts-or-1986.