Piskorowski v. Shell Oil Co.

403 N.E.2d 838, 75 Ind. Dec. 393, 1980 Ind. App. LEXIS 1413
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedApril 21, 1980
Docket3-778A176
StatusPublished
Cited by60 cases

This text of 403 N.E.2d 838 (Piskorowski v. Shell Oil Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Piskorowski v. Shell Oil Co., 403 N.E.2d 838, 75 Ind. Dec. 393, 1980 Ind. App. LEXIS 1413 (Ind. Ct. App. 1980).

Opinion

*840 STATON, Judge.

On August 31, 1965, Shell Oil Company and Jospeh F. Piskorowski entered into a lease agreement whereby Shell agreed to rent Piskorowski’s property located at the southeast corner of 139th Street and Hoh-man Avenue in Hammond, Indiana. The lease agreement was for a ten year term, but included provisions by which Shell could terminate its leasehold interest in Piskorow-ski’s property prior to the expiration of the ten year period.

In January of 1967, Shell, acting under the auspices of the termination provisions, notified Piskorowski that it was exercising its option to cancel its rights and obligations under the lease effective May 1, 1967. Shell’s cessation of rental payments on that date prompted Piskorowski to initiate three separate lawsuits in Lake Superior Court. Through the procedural vehicles of venue and consolidation, jurisdiction over Pisko-rowski’s various actions was transferred to the Porter Superior Court, where Shell’s Motion for Summary Judgment on the consolidated causes was granted. Piskorowski here appeals from that decision, and raises the following issues for our review:

(1) Whether the Porter County Superior Court had jurisdiction to render Summary Judgment on cause number 576-581 when the pleadings and transcript had not been physically transferred to the court?
(2) Whether genuine issues of material fact existed which made Summary Judgment improper.

We affirm.

I.

Cause Number 576-581

In 1967, Piskorowski filed two separate breach-of-contract actions against Shell Oil Company in Lake Superior Court. The parties subsequently stipulated that the two causes be venued to Porter Superior Court. In 1969, the stipulations were effectuated; the Lake Superior Court ordered the actions venued, and the transcripts of each cause were physically transferred to the Porter Superior Court.

In 1976, Piskorowski filed a third suit against Shell wherein Piskorowski coupled his previous allegation that Shell had breached the lease agreement of the parties with the assertion that, in consideration of Shell’s performance of its leasehold obligations, Piskorowski had constructed a service station on his property. The suit was filed in Lake Superior Court and assigned cause number 576-581. Shell responded to the complaint with a Motion for Summary Judgment, wherein it prayed alternatively that the Lake Superior Court dismiss the action or order the cause joined with those suits already pending in Porter Superior Court.

Pursuant to the discretionary power vested in it by Ind. Rules of Procedure, Trial Rule 21(B), 1 the Lake Superior Court ordered that cause number 576-581 be “consolidated” with cause numbers 69 PSC 1243 and 1290 pending in Porter Superior Court. As part and parcel of its order, the Lake Court directed that the case be transferred to the Porter Court; inexplicably, however, the transcript and pleadings of cause 576-581 were never physically transferred to the Porter Superior Court.

Shell Oil Company then filed a Motion for Summary Judgment in the Porter Superior Court. The Porter Court granted that motion and entered identical orders to that effect in the case files for the two causes which had been venued to its jurisdiction in *841 1969. In the prefatory sections of its identical orders, the Court noted three consolidated causes were before the Court, among them Cause 576-581. The order reads in relevant part:

“JOSEPH P. PISKOROWSKI, )
Plaintiff )
)
vs. ) CAUSE NO. 69 PSC 1243
)
“SHELL OIL COMPANY, a )
Delaware Corporation, )
Defendant )
"JOSEPH F. PISKOROWSKI, )
Plaintiff )
)
vs. ) CAUSE NO. 69 PSC 1290
)
“SHELL OIL COMPANY, a )
Delaware Corporation, ).
Defendant )
“FINDINGS OF FACT AND CONCLUSIONS OF LAW
“These causes being at issue on plaintiff’s complaint and defendant’s answer thereto (these causes being comprised of Cause No. 167-610 filed in the Lake Superior Court on the 2nd day of August, 1967, Cause No. 167-633 filed in the Lake Superior Court on the 10th day of August, 1967, and Cause No. 576-581 filed in the Lake Superior Court on the 25th day of June, 1976) and said causes having been consolidated for the purposes of hearing and trial herein, and the defendant having filed a Motion for Summary Judgment in said causes, and argument having been heard thereon, and the Court having taken said motion under advisement, the Court not finds:
“That there is no genuine issue as to any material fact herein and specifically that:
******
“Therefore, the defendant, Shell Oil Company, is entitled to judgment as a matter of law on plaintiff’s complaint and defendant’s answer thereto.”

By expressly including the action under cause number 576-581 in its summary judgment, the Porter Superior Court appeared to adjudicate the action without having the pleadings and other court records before it. Such is not the case, however. While the Lake County Court file for cause 576-581 was never transferred to the Porter Superi- or Court, copies of the pleadings, motions, and other matters filed in cause 576-581 were presented to the Porter Court for its consideration. 2

No questions with respect to the paradoxr ical disposition of cause 576-581 were raised in Piskorowski’s subsequent Motion to Correct Errors, which was' overruled by the Porter Court. Eight months later, however, Piskorowski filed — in Lake Superior Court — a motion to reset cause 576-581 for trial. The motion was predicated upon the fact that the transcript and pleadings had never been physically transferred to the Porter Superior Court. The motion was not ruled upon by the Lake Superior Court; rather, the Lake court certified the transcript and pleadings of cause 576-581 to this Court for purposes of Piskorowski’s appeal.

Piskorowski does not contend otherwise. Rather, his contention on appeal is that inasmuch as the pleadings and transcript filed in the Lake Superior Court were never physically transferred to the Porter Superior Court, the court lacked jurisdiction to adjudicate the action. Consequently, he argues, the summary judgment granted Shell is void insofar as cause 576-581 is concerned. Shell maintains, however, that Piskorowski’s failure to raise the jurisdictional issue in his Motion to Correct Errors constitutes a waiver of the right to raise the issue on appeal. 3

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Bluebook (online)
403 N.E.2d 838, 75 Ind. Dec. 393, 1980 Ind. App. LEXIS 1413, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/piskorowski-v-shell-oil-co-indctapp-1980.