Guess v. Lee

108 P.3d 647, 198 Or. App. 304, 2005 Ore. App. LEXIS 265
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedMarch 16, 2005
Docket0105-04620; A121036
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 108 P.3d 647 (Guess v. Lee) 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
Guess v. Lee, 108 P.3d 647, 198 Or. App. 304, 2005 Ore. App. LEXIS 265 (Or. Ct. App. 2005).

Opinion

*306 BREWER, C. J.

This is a personal injury action for damages arising out of a motor vehicle accident. Plaintiff appeals from a judgment entered on a jury verdict for defendant after defendant appealed from an underlying arbitrator’s award in plaintiffs favor. In her sole assignment of error, plaintiff asserts that the trial court erred in denying her motion to enter judgment on the arbitrator’s award on the ground that defendant’s notice of appeal from the award was untimely under ORS 36.425(2)(a). We affirm.

The pertinent facts are undisputed. Plaintiff filed this action in May 2001. Thereafter, the trial court transferred the case to its court-annexed mandatory arbitration program. See ORS 36.400 - 36.425. On August 14, 2002, the arbitrator filed his award with the trial court clerk. On September 4, 21 days after the award was filed, defendant filed with the clerk a notice of appeal and request for trial de novo of the action. The clerk accepted the notice of appeal and, on September 5, the court returned the case to its active trial calendar. On October 3, plaintiff filed a motion for entry of judgment on the arbitrator’s award. The trial court denied the motion. In January 2003, the case was tried to a jury, and plaintiff appeals from the ensuing judgment on the jury’s verdict for defendant.

Plaintiff asserts that defendant’s notice of appeal from the arbitrator’s award was untimely and, therefore, that the trial court erred in denying plaintiffs motion for judgment on the award. Plaintiff relies on ORS 36.425(2)(a), which provides:

“Within 20 days after the filing of a decision and award with the clerk of the court under subsection (1) of this section, a party against whom relief is granted by the decision and award or a party whose claim for relief was greater than the relief granted to the party by the decision and award, but no other party, may file with the clerk a written notice of appeal and request for a trial de novo of the action in the court on all issues of law and fact. A copy of the notice of appeal and request for a trial de novo must be served on all other parties to the proceeding. After the filing of the written notice a trial de novo of the action shall be held. If *307 the action is triable by right to a jury and a jury is demanded by a party having the right of trial by jury, the trial de novo shall include a jury.”

Defendant responds that she timely filed the notice of appeal because the arbitrator served the award on the parties by mail. According to defendant, that method of service afforded her an additional three days within which to file the notice of appeal under ORCP 10 C, which provides:

“Except for service of summons, whenever a party has the right or is required to do some act or take some proceedings within a prescribed period after the service of a notice or other paper upon such party and the notice or paper is served by mail, 3 days shall be added to the prescribed period.”

Plaintiff replies that ORCP 10 C is inapposite because the limitation period of ORS 36.425(2)(a) is triggered by the filing of the arbitration decision and award, while ORCP 10 C pertains to, and is triggered by, “service of a notice or other paper.” That is, the time period for filing a notice of appeal and request for trial de novo under ORS 36.425(2)(a) is explicitly measured against when the arbitrator’s decision and award is filed and not against when the decision and award is served. In a related vein, plaintiff argues that the provisions of ORCP 10 do not apply to arbitration because chapter 13 of the Uniform Trial Court Rules, which governs court-annexed arbitration, does not explicitly incorporate ORCP 10. See UTCR 13.040(2) (“After a case is assigned to an arbitrator, these arbitration rules apply except where an arbitration rule states that a Rule of Civil Procedure applies.”).

The problem presented is one of statutory construction involving the meaning of ORS 36.425. We approach such questions using the analytical template set out in PGE v. Bureau of Labor and Industries, 317 Or 606, 859 P2d 1143 (1993). Under that template, we first consider the text and context of the statute and proceed to other interpretive sources (specifically, to the statute’s legislative history and, in the event that legislative history is unhelpful, to general maxims of statutory construction) only if the legislature’s intent is not clear at that first level. Id. at 610-12.

*308 We first consider whether the Oregon Rules of Civil Procedure generally are applicable to ORS 36.425(2)(a). We conclude that they are. The Oregon Rules of Civil Procedure apply in all civil actions in circuit court “except where a different procedure is specified by statute or rule.” ORCP 1 A; see, e.g., Quillen v. Roseburg Forest Products, Inc., 159 Or App 6, 9-10, 976 P2d 91 (1999) (holding that ORCP 10 C did not apply where statute expressly provided that the specified action must be taken “only” in accordance with statutory time requirements). Nothing in the Uniform Trial Court Rules suggests that the Oregon Rules of Civil Procedure do not apply to ORS 36.425(2)(a). UTCR 13.040(2) provides that the Oregon Rules of Civil Procedure apply before a case is assigned to arbitration and that the Uniform Trial Court Rules apply thereafter. However, by its terms, UTCR 13.040(2) does not expressly apply — to the exclusion of the Oregon Rules of Civil Procedure — to actions after arbitration has been concluded, that is, where, as here, the arbitrator’s assignment has been completed. 1

More importantly, UTCR 13.040(2) must be read consistently with ORS 36.425. See ORS 36.400(2) (authorizing adoption of rules “consistent” with ORS 36.400 to 36.425); UTCR 1.010(2) (Uniform Trial Court Rules must be construed to achieve consistency with statutory provisions). In context, it is clear that the Oregon Rules of Civil Procedure generally apply to paragraph (2)(a). Further, ORS 36.425(4) provides:

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Related

Harvey v. Christie
239 P.3d 279 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2010)
Webster v. Harmon
134 P.3d 1012 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2006)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
108 P.3d 647, 198 Or. App. 304, 2005 Ore. App. LEXIS 265, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/guess-v-lee-orctapp-2005.