Horton v. Suthers

43 P.3d 611, 2002 WL 77049
CourtSupreme Court of Colorado
DecidedMarch 4, 2002
Docket00SA58
StatusPublished
Cited by578 cases

This text of 43 P.3d 611 (Horton v. Suthers) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Colorado primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Horton v. Suthers, 43 P.3d 611, 2002 WL 77049 (Colo. 2002).

Opinions

Justice MARTINEZ delivered the opinion of the Court.

The director of the Department of Corree-tions (director) initiated this appeal following the Crowley County District Court's grant of Ralph Horton's petition for writ of habeas corpus. As discussed below, at the hearing on Horton's petition, the director had agreed with Horton that the Crowley County District Court should both hear the petition and grant the relief requested therein.

We are unpersuaded by the director's assertion on appeal that the Crowley County District Court (the habeas court) did not have jurisdiction to hear Horton's petition and grant the relief requested because Horton was first required to exhaust his remedies pursuant to Crim. P. 85. In reaching this conclusion, we are first required to address the issue of subject-matter jurisdiction, both generally and in the context of the writ of habeas corpus. We then consider the doctrine of exhaustion of legal remedies, and, after reviewing our prior precedent and relevant precedent from other jurisdictions, conclude that the director's exhaustion of remedies argument is not jurisdictional and, as a result, was waivable and in this case actually waived. Finally, we discuss the doctrine of invited error and conclude that the director invited the error by agreeing that Horton was entitled to the relief he requested. Accordingly, we affirm the Crowley County District Court.

I. Facts and Procedure

On October 22, 1997, Horton was convicted in the District Court for the City and County of Denver (the trial court) of the sale or possession of a schedule I or II controlled substance, a class 3 felony. See $ 18-18-405(2)(a)(I), 6 C.R.S. (2001). On December 1, 1997, the trial court sentenced Horton to community corrections for two years. After community corrections rejected Horton, the trial court resentenced Horton to two years in the Department of Corrections (DOC). The trial court also granted Horton credit for 205 days of presentence confinement. On February 12, 1998, the trial court amended the mittimus in Horton's case to include the mandatory parole period. Specifically, the mittimus was amended to include the language, "any term of parole authorized by Section CRS 18-1-105(1)(a@)(V)." 1 Horton was paroled on February 3, 1999. However, he violated his parole and was thus returned to the DOC on June 8, 1999.

On October 22, 1999, Horton filed a pro se petition for writ of habeas corpus in the Crowley County District Court. Horton's petition claimed that he was entitled to immediate release because, although he had fully served his sentence, the DOC was illegally refusing to release him. More specifically, Horton asserted that he was entitled to immediate release because he had served his entire two-year sentence before his parole was revoked.

The habeas court issued the writ, and a hearing was held on November 2, 1999. In his return to the writ of habeas corpus, and at the habeas corpus hearing, the director [614]*614argued that the habeas court did not have subject-matter jurisdiction over the case. In support of this argument, the director stated that Horton had previously filed a Crim. P. 35(a) motion to correct an illegal sentence in the trial court, which was still pending at the time of the hearing. The director further contended that the habeas court lacked subject-matter jurisdiction because Horton had previously filed a Crim. P. 35(c) motion that had been denied and was on appeal to the court of appeals as No. 98CA9Q4.2 The habe-as court accepted the director's arguments and denied the writ of habeas corpus on November 3, 1999.

On December 2, 1999, the trial court denied Horton's Crim. P. 85(a) motion on the grounds that it did not have subject-matter jurisdiction over the case because the court of appeals had such jurisdiction.3 According ly, Horton filed a motion for reconsideration with the habeas court on December 10, 1999. The director responded to the motion for reconsideration by agreeing with Horton that the habeas court could now properly hear the matter and that the relief sought by Horton was proper. Specifically, the director's response stated:

4. Based on close review of [Horton's] pending appeal before the Colorado Court of Appeals and [Horton's] request for relief upon the petition for writ of habeas corpus before this Court, the issues are not the same. Therefore the [director] agrees with [Horton] that this Court now has jurisdiction to consider the issues addressed in the petition for writ of habeas corpus.
5. Based on C.R.S. § 17-22.5-808 and People v. Mark A. Johnson, 97CA214, the [director] does not object to this Court granting [Horton's] request for relief.
THEREFORE, [the director] does not oppose [Horton's] request for habeas relief,

Relying on the director's representations in the response to the motion to reconsider, the habeas court granted Horton the relief he requested, and on January 19, 2000, ordered the DOC to release him immediately. The director appealed this judgment to us.4 For the reasons discussed below, we affirm.

II. Analysis

The director asserts two arguments on appeal. First, he contends that the habeas court lacked subject-matter jurisdiction to grant the relief requested in Horton's petition for writ of habeas corpus after the trial court had denied his Crim. P. 85(a) motion. More specifically, the director asserts that a defendant must exhaust all of his legal remedies under Crim. P. 35 before filing a petition for writ of habeas corpus. Second, he asserts that, if we find that subject-matter jurisdiction was proper in the habeas court, that court erroneously decided the merits of Horton's petition for writ of habeas corpus by granting the relief requested. The director asserts the second argument for the first time in this appeal.

[615]*615A. Subject-Matter Jurisdiction

Upon Horton's initial filing of his petition for writ of habeas corpus, the director asserted that the habeas court did not have subject-matter jurisdiction. However, in response to Horton's motion to reconsider, the director reversed his position, agreeing with Horton that the habeas court did have jurisdiction. The director further stated that he did not object to the court granting the relief Horton requested, which was immediate release from custody.

1. Subject-Matter Jurisdiction Generally

Subject-matter jurisdiction "concerns 'the court's authority to deal with the class of cases in which it renders judgment." " Closed Basin Landowners Ass'n. v. Rio Grande Water Conservation Dist., 734 P.2d 627, 636 (Colo.1987) (quoting In re Marriage of Stroud, 631 P.2d 168, 170 (Colo.1981)). A court has subject-matter jurisdiction if "the case is one of the type of cases that the court has been empowered to entertain by the sovereign from which the court derives its authority." Paine, Webber, Jackson & Curtis, Inc. v. Adams, 718 P.2d 508, 513 (Colo.1986).

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Bluebook (online)
43 P.3d 611, 2002 WL 77049, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/horton-v-suthers-colo-2002.