Holiday Park Realty Corp. v. Gateway Corp.

281 N.E.2d 519, 259 Ind. 477, 1972 Ind. LEXIS 503
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedApril 20, 1972
DocketNo. 1271A254; 1172S150
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 281 N.E.2d 519 (Holiday Park Realty Corp. v. Gateway Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Holiday Park Realty Corp. v. Gateway Corp., 281 N.E.2d 519, 259 Ind. 477, 1972 Ind. LEXIS 503 (Ind. 1972).

Opinion

ORDER GRANTING TRANSFER AND ADOPTING OPINION OF COURT OF APPEALS

Appellant’s “Petition to Transfer to Supreme Court” is hereby granted. This Court has carefully considered the Petition to Transfer and the memorandum in opposition there[478]*478to and the Opinion of Judge Buchanan of the Court of Appeals, dated April 20, 1972, and reported in 281 N. E. 2d 519, and hereby orders this case transferred to this Court, and upon the granting of transfer hereby orders the Clerk of this Court to enter said Opinion in the records of the Supreme Court of Indiana as its Opinion, to be published in the Indiana Reports and in the N. E. Reporter as adopted from the Court of Appeals.

DONE at Indianapolis, Indiana, this 2nd day of November, 1972.

Hunter, Acting Chief Justice; Chief Justice Arterburn and DeBruler, J., vote to deny transfer.

Buchanan, J.

STATEMENT OF THE CASE AND FACTS—A money judgment was entered by the trial court against defendant-appellant, Holiday Park Realty Corporation (Holiday) resulting from an action on account brought by plaintiff-appellee, Gateway Corporation (Gateway). This appeal followed.

On December 18, 1969, this case was tried by the court without a jury. When concluded, the matter was taken under advisement and on January 15, 1970 judgment was entered for Holiday but without findings of facts and conclusions of law. The next day the court, on its own motion, vacated the judgment of the previous day, entering this Order on January 16,1970:

“The Court being duly advised now sets judgment aside and sets date for completion of evidence and final argument for March 11,1970 at 2:00 P.M.
“IT IS THEREFORE ORDERED, ADJUDGED AND DECREED by the Court that Judgment heretofore rendered on January 15th, 1970 be and hereby is set aside and held for naught.” (Tr. p. 19.) (Emphasis supplied.)

On December 16, 1970, the court made an entry that no additional evidence had been submitted and took the matter under advisement until December 31, 1970, with briefs to [479]*479be submitted. On June 8, 1971, judgment was entered against Holiday in the sum of $11,230.53 plus interest and the court also entered Findings of Facts and Conclusions of Law.

Holiday timely filed its Motion to Correct Errors, which was overruled.

ISSUE—Did the trial court err in setting aside its judgment of January 15,1970 on its own motion?

Holiday argues that the trial court erred in setting aside the judgment of January 15, 1970 because no written reasons were assigned pursuant to Rule TR. 59 (E) (7) for taking such action.

Gateway, on the other hand, contends the trial court had the power, on its own motion, to vacate, set aside, or reopen any judgment rendered.

Holiday specifies in its Motion to Correct Errors that no notice was given by the court when it set aside the January 15, 1970 judgment. However, no argument on the notice question was presented by Holiday in its brief and is therefore waived. Rule AP. 8.3 (A).

DECISION—It is our opinion that the trial court did not err in setting aside its judgment of January 15, 1970 on its own motion because it did so in conformance with Rule TR. 52(B).

In a somewhat different context, this court recently reviewed the power of a trial court to modify, set aside, or vacate its judgments. See Wadkins v. Thornton (1972), 151 Ind. App. 380, 279 N. E. 2d 849. We do not consider it necessary in determining the narrow issue before us to re-plow the ground of the broader aspects of a court’s power over its judgments. Instead, we look to the specific language of the Indiana Rules of Trial Procedure. Neither party refers to Rule TR 52 (B) which we think governs the right of a trial court to amend or enter a new judgment as this trial court did on January 16,1970 and June 8,1971.

[480]*480The last paragraph of Rule TR. 52(A) says that: “On appeal * * *, the court * * * shall not set aside the findings or judgment [of the trial court] unless clearly erroneous * *

Continuing, we find Rule TR. 52(B) to be the lamp that guides the feet of the trial judge as he amends or alters his findings or enters a new judgment before a motion to correct errors under Rule TR. 59 has been filed. Its guidelines are specific:

“(B) AMENDMENT OF FINDINGS AND JUDGMENT—CAUSES THEREFORE. Upon its own motion at any time before a motion to correct errors (Rule 59) is required to be made, or with or as part of a motion to correct errors by any party, the court, in the case of a claim tried without a jury or with an advisory jury, may open the judgment, if one has been entered, take additional testimony, amend or make new findings of fact and enter a new judgment or any combination thereof if:
(1) the judgment or findings are either against the weight of the evidence, or are not supported by or contrary to the evidence;
(2) special findings of fact required by this rule are lacking, incomplete, inadequate in form or content or do not cover the issues raised by the pleadings or evidence;
(3) special findings of fact required by this rule are inconsistent with each other; or
(4) the judgment is inconsistent with the special findings of fact required by this rule.
Failure of a party to move to modify the findings or judgment under this subdivision and failure to object to proposed findings or judgment or such findings or judgment which has been entered of record shall not constitute a waiver of the right to raise the question in or with a motion to correct errors.” (Emphasis supplied.)

No Indiana cases to date have interpreted Rule TR. 52(B) and our research fails to uncover any comments concerning the effect of this rule on facts similar to the case before us. We are likewise unable to utilize federal court interpretations of Fed. R. Civ. P. 52 (b) (the counterpart of Rule TR. 52 (B)) [481]*481in that the federal rule substantially differs from the Indiana rule. Our rule allows a trial court, on its own motion, to amend or vacate a judgment provided one of the four enumerated conditions in subsection (B) exists. The federal rule, on the other hand, allows the trial court to amend or vacate its judgments only upon motion by one of the parties. After such a motion has been filed with the court, however, the reasons for making an amendment or vacation appear unlimited.

With no star to guide us we proceed to interpret Rule TR. 52(B).

We find therein no requirement that the court specifically state in writing why it amends its judgment or enters a new judgment. It may do so on its own motion at any time before a motion to correct errors is filed if in its discretion any one or more of the enumerated defects exist. No more is required.

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Related

Holiday Park Realty Corp. v. Gateway Corp.
289 N.E.2d 292 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1972)

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Bluebook (online)
281 N.E.2d 519, 259 Ind. 477, 1972 Ind. LEXIS 503, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/holiday-park-realty-corp-v-gateway-corp-ind-1972.