659 N.E.2d 375 | Ohio Ct. App. | 1995
[EDITORS' NOTE: THIS PAGE CONTAINS HEADNOTES. HEADNOTES ARE NOT AN OFFICIAL PRODUCT OF THE COURT, THEREFORE THEY ARE NOT DISPLAYED.] *329 Appellant, Sears Logistics Services, appeals a judgment from the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas finding that appellee, Annetta Rhynehardt, had the right to dismiss her complaint pursuant to Civ.R. 41(A), and consequently denying appellant's motion for default judgment. On appeal, appellant asserts the following assignment of error:
"The trial court erred by allowing appellee to dismiss her employer's appeal by use of Ohio Civil Rule 41(A)."
R.C.
Pursuant to R.C.
Appellant filed a default judgment motion with the common pleas court. Appellant asserted that appellee was not entitled to participate in workers' *330
compensation benefits for the condition "aggravation of dysthymic disorder" on the basis that the case had been set for trial July 18, 1994, and the claimant-appellee had been unable to present evidence supporting the elements of her case. Citing case law holding that the Civil Rules should not be applied when clearly inapplicable, appellant also argued that appellee should not be allowed to dismiss her complaint pursuant to Civ.R. 41 as it would defeat the basic statutory purpose of R.C.
The common pleas court relied on Ross v. Wolf Envelope Co. (Aug. 2, 1990), Cuyahoga App. No. 57015, unreported, 1990 WL 109082, and found that the claimant was entitled to dismiss her complaint pursuant to Civ.R. 41(A). Because it found the dismissal to be valid, the court denied appellant's motion for default judgment.
On August 12, 1994, appellee filed her notice of dismissal in the common pleas court. The dismissal stated that it was filed pursuant to Civ.R. 41(A) without prejudice and pursuant to the common pleas court order filed August 8, 1994. (While the notice of dismissal cites the common pleas court order, this court understands the dismissal to be a Civ.R. 41[A][1][a] dismissal — not a Civ.R. 41[A][2] dismissal. The question which the common pleas court had addressed was whether the claimant could dismiss her complaint filed in the common pleas court pursuant to an appeal brought under R.C.
The present appeal presents two basic issues. The first issue, which appellee has raised, is whether there is a final appealable order. The second issue is whether a Civ.R. 41(A)(1)(a) dismissal by the claimant is permissible in an appeal from an industrial claim brought by an employer to the common pleas court pursuant to R.C.
R.C.
Appeals from the Industrial Commission to the common pleas court did not exist at common law or in equity. Common pleas courts only have such jurisdiction over workers' compensation cases as is conferred on them by the Workers' Compensation Act.Jenkins v. Keller (1966),
The employer's right of appeal is compromised by the Civ.R. 41(A)(1) dismissal which, in conjunction with the savings statute, permits the claimant to wait up to a year before refiling the complaint and continuing the appeal. If immediate review of the common pleas court order is not taken, appellant will be unable to get effective relief at a later time. Accordingly, this court finds that the order affects a substantial right and that a final appealable order exists.
Civ.R. 1(C) states that the Civil Rules, "to the extent that they would by their nature be clearly inapplicable, shall not apply to procedure * * * (7) in all other special statutory proceedings." The Ohio Supreme Court has identified the philosophy of Ohio courts to be that "`[t]he civil rules should be held to be clearly inapplicable only when their use will alter the basic statutory purpose for which the specific procedure was originally provided in the special statutory action.' [Citations omitted.]" Price v. Westinghouse Elec. Corp.
(1982),
Civ.R. 41(A)(1)(a) allows a plaintiff to voluntarily dismiss its action without order of the court "by filing a notice of dismissal at any time before the commencement of trial unless a counterclaim which cannot remain pending for independent adjudication by the court has been served by the defendant." Unless otherwise stated in the notice of dismissal, a Civ.R. 41(A)(1) voluntary dismissal is without prejudice.
In Ross, the Cuyahoga County Court of Appeals addressed the issue of whether the trial court erred when it refused to recognize the claimant's notice of dismissal of his complaint pursuant to Civ.R. 41(A)(1)(a). In Ross, as in the present appeal, the employer appealed from an Industrial Commission decision pursuant to R.C.
Ross does not discuss the unique situation posed by an appeal of an Industrial Commission decision by an employer, i.e., that at the same time the claimant is the plaintiff in the trialde novo, the claimant is also the appellee and is receiving workers' compensation benefits which are the subject of the appeal. Nor does this court find that it can be disputed that a Civ.R. 41(A)(1)(a) dismissal by the plaintiff-claimant can be used as a delaying tactic.
While it is not completely on point, we find the present scenario to be persuasively analogous to the situation in which a Civ.R. 41(A)(1)(a) dismissal is expressly inapplicable, namely, when there is a counterclaim that cannot be independently adjudicated. The employer's appeal cannot be heard independent of the adjudication of the claimant's complaint.
This court concludes that Civ.R. 41(A)(1)(a) should not be available to claimants when the employer has appealed an Industrial Commission case to the common pleas court because of the capacity for this to be used in an abusive manner to delay the litigation of the appeal on its merits. Other remedies remain available to a claimant who has a valid need to postpone the start of a trial on the complaint. Accordingly, this court finds that Civ.R. 41(A)(1)(a), if applied to an appeal by an employer to the commons pleas court pursuant to R.C.
Appellant has interpreted the effect of a claimant's Civ.R. 41(A)(1)(a) dismissal of its complaint as taking away the common pleas court's jurisdiction of the employer's R.C.
Appellant's assignment of error is sustained, and the decision of the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas denying appellant's default judgment motion based on Ross is reversed and remanded for proceedings consistent with this decision.
This court's determination that the claimant, Annetta Rhynehardt, may not dismiss her complaint pursuant to Civ.R. 41(A)(1)(a) is in direct conflict with the decision of the Cuyahoga County Court of Appeals in Ross, which determined that the claimant was entitled to dismiss his complaint pursuant to Civ.R. 41(A)(1)(a). Pursuant to Section
"In an appeal pursuant to R.C.
JOHN C. YOUNG and CLOSE, JJ., concur.
DEAN STRAUSBAUGH, J., retired, of the Tenth Appellate District, sitting by assignment.