Lee v. American Family Mutual Insurance Co.

379 P.3d 698, 279 Or. App. 282, 2016 Ore. App. LEXIS 856
CourtMultnomah County Circuit Court, Oregon
DecidedJune 29, 2016
Docket120303367; A156032
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 379 P.3d 698 (Lee v. American Family Mutual Insurance Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Multnomah County Circuit Court, Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lee v. American Family Mutual Insurance Co., 379 P.3d 698, 279 Or. App. 282, 2016 Ore. App. LEXIS 856 (Or. Super. Ct. 2016).

Opinion

FLYNN, J.

Plaintiff appeals from a judgment entered following judicial review of an arbitration award. The dispute before us arises out of the “court-annexed arbitration” process, under which the circuit courts are required to refer certain cases to an arbitrator, whose decision becomes final and not appealable unless a party files a timely request for trial de novo in the circuit court. See ORS 36.400 to 36.425. The question is whether a party who files a request for a trial de novo under ORS 36.425(2) may also challenge the arbitrator’s decision regarding an award of attorney fees or whether the party must separately follow the procedure set out in ORS 36.425(6) for filing “exceptions directed solely to the award or denial of attorney fees or costs.” The trial court, here, refused to re-examine the arbitrator’s attorney fee award because plaintiff filed only a request for trial de novo. The court also excluded from its award of post-arbitration attorney fees a fee for time that plaintiffs counsel spent on what the court concluded was an unsuccessful challenge to the arbitration fee award. Plaintiff argues that the trial court erred in its construction of ORS 36.425, and we agree. We reverse and remand the court’s judgment, which incorporated both challenged rulings.

The pertinent facts are procedural and not in dispute. Plaintiff filed a complaint alleging that defendant breached its contract to pay benefits that plaintiff claimed under her policies of automobile and renter’s insurance. Because she sought damages in an amount less than $50,000, the circuit court referred the case to its mandatory “court-annexed” arbitration program pursuant to ORS 36.405(l)(a).1 The designated arbitrator awarded plaintiff a portion of the damages that she claimed as well as $13,400 of the attorney fees that plaintiff sought pursuant [284]*284to ORS 742.061(1).2 The arbitrator included both rulings in an award that he filed with the clerk of the court pursuant to ORS 36.425(1). As permitted by ORS 36.425(2)(a), plaintiff filed within 20 days a request “for a trial de novo of the action in the court on all issues of law and fact.”

Defendant insisted that plaintiff had lost the opportunity to challenge the arbitrator’s award of fees because she failed to separately follow the process set out in ORS 36.425(6). That process requires that “exceptions directed solely to the award or denial of attorney fees or costs” be filed within seven days of the date the arbitrator’s award is filed with the court. The parties stipulated to a resolution of the insurance policy claim but expressly left the dispute regarding “the right to, and the amount of costs and attorney fees” for the court to determine.

The trial court determined that plaintiff’s request for trial de novo under ORS 36.425(2)(a) was insufficient to raise her challenge to the arbitration fees and, therefore, refused to re-examine the issue of the plaintiffs attorney fee for time spent prior to the date on which the arbitration award was filed. The court also ruled that plaintiff was entitled to recover a portion of the post-arbitration attorney fees that she requested, because plaintiff had improved her position after requesting a trial de novo. The trial court excluded from that fee award, however, a fee for time that plaintiffs attorney spent on the unsuccessful challenge to the arbitrator’s fee award. Plaintiff argues that the court’s construction of ORS 36.425 is incorrect.

Whether a party who follows the process specified in ORS 36.425(2)(a) for requesting a trial de novo may challenge the arbitrator’s attorney fee decision presents a question of statutory construction. As with all matters of statutory construction, our “paramount goal” is to determine the [285]*285legislature’s intent. State v. Gaines, 346 Or 160, 171, 206 P3d 1042 (2009). In determining the legislature’s intent, we give “primary weight” to the statute’s text and context. Id. Thus, because “there is no more persuasive evidence of the intent of the legislature than the words by which the legislature undertook to give expression to its wishes [,]” we begin with the text of the statute. Id. (internal quotation marks omitted).

In this case, “the words by which the legislature undertook to give expression to its wishes” are unambiguous. ORS 36.425(2)(a) provides, in pertinent part:

“Within 20 days after the filing of a decision and award * * * a party whose claim for relief was greater than the relief granted to the party by the decision and award * * * 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.”

(Emphasis added.) As plaintiff argues, the phrase “all issues of law and fact” is broad enough to include all issues regarding the right to recover attorney fees, including the amount of attorney fees to which she was entitled for the time period addressed by the arbitrator’s attorney fee award. An award of attorney fees involves both legal and factual issues. Parks v. Farmers Ins. Co., 214 Or App 1, 6, 162 P3d 1088 (2007), rev’d on other grounds, 347 Or 374 (2009) (a party’s entitlement to attorney fees is a question of law); Higgins v. Insurance Co. of N. America, 256 Or 151, 171, 469 P2d 766 (1970) (the amount constituting a reasonable attorney fee is a question of fact). Thus, nothing in the plain language of ORS 36.425(2)(a) suggests that we limit the meaning of “all issues of law and fact” to exclude issues of law and fact pertaining to the award of attorney fees.

Defendant, nevertheless, urges that ORS 36.425(6) imposes that limitation. We disagree. ORS 36.425(6) provides, as pertinent:

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Morat v. Sunset Vill., LLC
432 P.3d 327 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2018)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
379 P.3d 698, 279 Or. App. 282, 2016 Ore. App. LEXIS 856, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lee-v-american-family-mutual-insurance-co-orccmultnomah-2016.