STATE OF OREGON, Rеspondent on Review, v. MICHAEL LEE MULLINS, Petitioner on Review.
CC 085207AFE; CA A141529; SC S059833
In the Supreme Court of the State of Oregon
August 23, 2012
284 P.3d 1139 | 352 Or. 343
Argued and submitted June 13, 2012
Argued and submitted June 13, decision of Court of Appeals affirmed; judgment of conviction and sentence and supplemental judgment for restitution entered by circuit court affirmed August 23, 2012
Paul L. Smith, Attorney-in-Charge, Salem, argued the cause and filed the brief for respondent on review. With him on the brief were John R. Kroger, Attorney General, and Anna M. Joyce, Solicitor General.
WALTERS, J.
WALTERS, J.
In this criminal case, we must determine whether defendant filed his notice of appeal from a supplemental judgment awarding restitution within the time allowed by
The procedural facts are as follows. Defendant was charged in December 2008 with second- and third-degree assault, and was represented by trial counsel. In early February 2009, a jury found defendant guilty on both charges. That same day, the trial court entered a judgment of conviction and sentence, which included an instruction that defendant pay restitution “in an amount to be determined as ordered and pursuant to
counsel continued to represent defendant on post-judgment matters to be decided in the trial court, including matters relating to the amount of restitution that defendant would be required to pay.
On July 9, 2009, the state moved for an “amended” judgment and money award, and sought $2,603.70 in restitution. That same day, without conducting a hearing,4 the trial court signed a “Judgment for Restitution”
On March 23, 2010, more than eight months after entry of the supplemental judgment and approximately four months after defendant‘s trial counsel received notice of entry of the supplemental judgment, defendant‘s appellate counsel learned of entry of that judgment and filed an amended notice of appeal from it. In his opening brief on appeal, defendant assigned error to the trial court‘s entry of the supplemental judgment without providing defendant with an opportunity to be heard. See
defendant objects to imposition, amount, or distribution of restitution). In response, the state contended that the Court of Appeals did not have jurisdiction to consider defendant‘s claim of error, because defendant‘s amended notice of appeal was untimely under
The Court of Appeals affirmed defendant‘s judgment of conviction and sentence, but dismissed his appeal from the supplemental judgment awarding restitution, concluding—as the state argued—that it lacked jurisdiction because defendant‘s appeal from the supplemental judgment was untimely under
Ordinarily, a notice of appeal must be filed and served “not later than 30 days after the judgment or order appealed from was entered in the register.”
“If the trial court enters a corrected or a supplemental judgment under
ORS 138.083 ,6 a notice of appeal from the corrected or supplemental judgment must be filed not later
than 30 days after the
defendant receives notice that the judgment has been entered.”
(Emphasis added.)
The parties’ dispute centers on the emphasized wording of
For its part, the state does not disagree that
supplemental judgment may be made in the manner specified by rules adopted by the appellate court.”
For purposes of construing
approximately three months before defendant‘s appellate counsel filed the amended notice of apрeal from the supplemental judgment.
To resolve the parties’ dispute, we must construe
As noted, the parties do not dispute that, by stating that a defendant must “receive[] notice” for the 30-day appeal period to begin to run, the legislature intended that a defendant receive actual rather than constructive notice of entry of the supplemental judgment. In other words, the legislature contemplated that (1) some person or entity would provide the defendant with the notice in question (that is, that entry of a quаlifying judgment had occurred); and (2) the defendant need not act to preserve the time for appeal until receiving that notice. Entry of the supplemental judgment in the register would not alone be sufficient to trigger the 30-day appeal period.
We agree with the parties that the statutory text of
or reasonably should have been discovered did not specify whose discovery triggered time limitation). However, the statutory wording unambiguously directs that the trigger for the start of the 30-day appeal period is a defendant‘s receipt of notice of entry of a supplemental judgment from some source. It follows that a defendant is not deemed to receive that notice by virtue of its entry and is not independently obligated to determine the date or fact of entry of a supplemental judgment under
Statutory context confirms that reading. Most notably, other parts of
In their application of that “actual notice” requirement to the facts of this case, the parties discuss this court‘s decision in Fowler, 350 Or 133, and, as noted, the Court of Appeals followed Fowler in concluding that defendant‘s amended notice of appeal was untimely. In Fowler, the trial court had informed the defendant, at the conclusion of a hearing on the state‘s request for transportation costs, that an “amended judgment” awarding costs would be еntered and that the time to appeal that judgment had begun to run. Two days later, a supplemental judgment was entered in the register. More than 30 days later, the defendant filed his notice of appeal from the supplemental judgment. Id. at 135-36.
The Court of Appeals affirmed both the original and supplemental judgments without opinion, and the defendant petitioned for review. Id. at 136. In an opinion that allowed the
defendant‘s petition in part, this court vacated the aspect of the Court of Appeals decision that affirmed the supplemental judgment and remanded with instructions to dismiss the defendant‘s appeal from that judgment for lack of jurisdiction. Id. at 140. This court expressed two bases for its decision: (1) nothing in the record suggested that the supplemental judgment at issue qualified as a supplemental judgment awarding restitution under
In its opinion in this case, the Court of Appeals determined that this court‘s secondary rationale in Fowler amounted to an independent reason for reaching the dispositional result, rather than mere dictum that accompanied a primary holding that the judgment in question did not qualify as a supplemental judgment awarding restitution under
The Court of Appeals fairly characterized the secondary rationale from Fowler as an alternative holding, rather than dictum. See Woodard v. Pacific F. & P. Co., 165 Or 250, 256-67, 106 P2d 1043 (1940) (“[W]here the court bases its decision on two or more distinct
As noted, one of the key facts before this court in Fowler was that the supplemental judgment at issue was not a judgment awarding restitution under
The parties’ arguments in that respect permit us to see more closely than was obvious when this court decided Fowler that two aspects of the opinion in that case could prove confusing. First, Fowler could be read to hold that a defendant against whom a supplemental judgment under
The second aspect of Fowler that requires attention is its implication that actual notice that a supplemental judgment under
that a defendant receive actual notice that a supplemental judgment under
We therefore turn to the issue on which this case depends and on which the parties’ arguments differ: Whether, to meet the requirement in
We agree with the parties that, when the legislature based the time to appeal from a supplemental judgment under
file a notice of appeal,
Two other Oregon statutes—both contained in chapter 9 of the Oregon Revised Statutes, pertaining to attorneys—provide additional context for our construction of
“An attorney is a person authorized to represent a party in the written proceedings in any action, suit or proceeding, in any stage thereof. An attorney *** may also represent a party in court, or before a judicial officer, in which case the attorney is known as counsel, and the authority of the attorney is limited to the matters that transpire in the court or before such officer at the time.”
(Emphasis added.) Additionally,
“Any action, suit, or proceeding may be *** defended by a party in person, or by attorney ***. Where a party appears by attorney, the written proceedings must be in the name of the attorney, who is the sole representative of the client of the attorney as between the client and the adverse party [with an exception that does not apply here].”
(Emphasis added.) Consistently with those statutes, counsel for a criminal defendant effectively serves as a representative or agent for the defendant in a court proceeding for which an attorney is appointed or retained. See Lehman v. Knott, 100 Or 240, 246, 187 P 1109 (1920) (“The relationship of attorney and client is that of principal and agent.“); see also Granewich v. Harding, 329 Or 47, 56 n 5, 985 P2d 788 (1999) (citing agency principles in context of attorney-client
relationship). As this court has explained, in the context of an administrative agency proceeding,
“when an [administrative] agency has actual knowledge that a person is represented by counsel, that knowledge triggers certain obligations on the part of the agency and certain rights in the represented person. After receiving information that a party is represented by а lawyer, an agency rightfully may presume that the lawyer has authority to speak on behalf of the party on all matters pertaining to the representation. By the same token, a party, having elected to be represented by a lawyer, is entitled to rely on the lawyer to deal with the agency on its behalf and to expect the agency to deal with the lawyer.”
ETU, Inc. v. Environmental Quality Commission, 343 Or 57, 66, 162 P3d 248 (2007). See also generally Goldsborough v. Eagle Crest Partners, Ltd., 314 Or 336, 342, 343 n 10, 838 P2d 1069 (1992) (in absence of evidence
It follows as a textual and contextual matter that, in referring to notice received by “the defendant,”
attorney of record for defendant in that court. Consequently, the scope of trial counsel‘s representation extended to receipt of notice of entry of that supplemental judgment. Appellate counsel, in turn, represented defendant on appeal. Such representation encompassed the filing of any required notice of appeal—here, the notice of appeal from the judgment of conviction and sentence and the amended notice of appeal from the supplemental judgment. Consequently, the scope of appellate counsel‘s representation also extended to receipt of notice of entry of the supplemental judgment, the event that triggered the 30-day period for filing the notice of appeal.
The foregoing statutory context supports the state‘s reading of
The identified legislative history is primarily recited in an unpublished order that the Court of Appeals Appellate Commissioner issued in State v. Bennett (A141528), which the Court of Appeals also reviewed in this case before concluding that this court‘s decision in Fowler controlled. Mullins, 245 Or App at 509-10. For the reasons explained below, we agree with the parties that the proffered legislative history sheds light on the intended purpose of the notice requirement in
We begin by framing the enactment history of both
the judgment in certain circumstances or determining an amount of restitution to be set out in a supplemental judgment.10 The latter statute was enacted in 1989; as originally enacted, the statute granted a sentencing court narrow authority for 60 days post-judgment, irrespective of any notice of appeal, to modify a judgment and sentence to correct any arithmetic or clerical error. Or Laws 1989, ch 790, § 20.
The predecessor to
did not include the exception now set out in subsection (4), regarding an appeal from a corrected or supplemental judgment entered under
In 2007, the legislature amended
“ORS 138.071(4) was enacted as part of House Bill 2322 (Oregon Laws 2007, ch 547), sеctions 2 and 3 of which are relevant here. Section 3, in addition to modifying the numbering of [the subsections of] ORS 138.083[], included the following:
“[(1) ***]
“[*****]
“‘(b) If a sentencing court enters [an amended] a corrected judgment under this [section] subsection while an appeal of the judgment is pending, the court shall immediately forward a copy of the [amended] corrected judgment to the appellate court. Any modification of the appeal necessitated by the [amended] corrected judgment shall be made in the manner specified by rules adopted by the appellate court.
“‘[(2) ***]
“‘*****
“‘(c) If a sentencing court enters a supplemental judgment under this subsection while an appeal of the judgment of conviction is pending, the court shall immediately forward a copy of the supplemental judgment to the appellate court. Any modification of the appeal necessitated by the supplemental judgment may be made in the manner specified by rules adopted by the appellate court.’
“Section 2 of HB 2322, among other things, amended ORS 138.071 to add what is now subsection (4), which, as noted above, provides that a notice of appeal from a corrected or supplemental judgment under ORS 138.083 must be filed no
later than 30 days after the ‘defendant receives notice’ that the judgment has been entered. “HB 2322 was introduced at the request of the Judicial Department. The Department‘s written testimony in support of the bill noted, with respect to sections 2 and 3, that:
“‘The new Appellate Case Management System has been programmed to automatically generate a notice to parties on appeal when the appellate court receives a copy of a corrected or supplemental judgment.’
“(Written testimony dated May 3, 2007, of Kingsley Click, State Court Administrator, before the Senate Judiciary Committee). That testimony is consistent with [Oregon Rule of Appellate Procedure (]ORAP[)] 8.28(2)(a), which addresses notices of appeal from corrected or supplemental judgments under ORS 138.083, providing in part: ‘The amended notice of appeal shall state when the party received notice of entry of the corrected or supplemental judgment.’
“Thus, the legislative scheme anticipated that (1) the trial court would forward a copy of a corrected or supplemental judgment *** to the appellate court; (2) the appellate court would give the parties notice of entry of the corrected or supplemental judgment; and (3) the time period for filing notice of appeal from such a corrected or supplemental notice would not begin to run until ‘the defendant’ received notice that the judgment had been entered. Ms. Click‘s testimony pointed out why the legislation was necessary:
“‘Current law requires the trial court to send a copy of a corrected judgment to the appellate court (but not to the parties); however, trial courts do not consistently do so in a timely way, and some parties on appeal, therefore, may not discover the corrected or supplemental judgment until late in the appeal process. The changes preserve both the state‘s and the defendant‘s right to appeal if the trial court fails to send timely copies to the appellate court.‘”
State v. Bennett (A141528), Order Denying Motion to Strike Respondent‘s Brief and Granting Motion for Leave to File Reply Brief (unpublished), 5-6 (issued April 22, 2011) (most brackets in original). In Bennett, the Appellate Commissioner also took judicial notice of the following:
“[T]he case register system used by the appellate courts is programmed so that, when a party is represented by counsel on appeal, any notice issued to a party is actually issued to the attorney representing the party on appeal. Indeed, when an attorney files a notice of appeal on behalf of a party, the notice of appeal does not provide the party‘s address, and the court has no alternative except to correspond with the attorney. See ORAP 2.05(5) (requiring notice of appeal to contain the names of parties and their attorneys, the addresses of attorneys, and the address of a party only if the party is рroceeding without counsel).”
Id. at 6 (footnote omitted). Nothing in the legislative history suggests that, in enacting HB 2322 (2007), the legislature intended any result beyond addressing the concerns that the Judicial Department had expressed in requesting enactment of the bill.12
In this case, however, we can infer from the record that the anticipated process did not occur.14 Defendant‘s trial counsel, instead of his appellate counsel, received notice of entry of the supplemental judgment in November 2009, more than four months after entry of that judgment,
and approximately four months before appellate counsel received notice of entry of that judgment.
We again turn to the specific words of
Here, the parties agree that defendant‘s trial counsel received notice of the entry of the supplemental judgment in November 2009, at a time when that counsel continued to serve as attorney of record for defendant in the trial court proceeding. Therefore, trial counsel was serving as defendant‘s agent on that date. Given the wording that the legislature used when it enacted
The decision of the Court of Appeals is affirmed. The judgment of conviction and sentence and the supрlemental judgment for restitution entered by the circuit court are affirmed.
