New Castle Auto Auction & Consignments, Inc. v. Eric Riley and Jeanne Riley

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IN THE COURT OF COMMON PLEAS FOR THE STATE OF DELAWARE IN AND FOR NEW CASTLE COUNTY NEW CASTLE AUTO AUCTION & CONSIGNMENTS, INC., Plaintiff—Below/Appellant, V. CA. No. CPU4-13—001066 ERIC RILEY & JEANNE RILEY, Defendants-Below/Appellees. VVVVVVVVVK—Jv Submitted: November 10, 2014 Decided: December 1, 2014 D. Miika Roggio, Esquire David 1.3. Facciolo, Esquire Silverman, McDonald & Friedman Jessica L. Cuprak, Esquire 1010 N. Bancroft Parkway, Suite 22 Minster & Facciolo, LLC Wilmington, DE 19805 521 West Street Attorney for Plaintiﬁ Wilmington, DE 19801 Attorneyfor Defendants OPINION AND ORDER ON DEFENDANT’S MOTION TO DISMISS FOR LACK OF JURISDICTION The instant matter is an appeal de novo brought pursuant to 10 Del C. § 9570 et’ seq. from the Justice of the Peace Court. Trial in this matter was originaily scheduled for October 23, 2014. During sidebar, Counsel for Appeilees raised a potential jurisdictional issue, and indicated that Appeliant may have untimely ﬁled the appeal.1 The Court ordered counsel for both parties to submit legal argument on whether the instant appeal was timely ﬁled pursuant to 10 Del. C. § 9570 et seq. and whether the Court therefore has jurisdiction. This is the Court’s Decision and Order. ' At sidebar, counsel did not stipulate that this potential issue was being raised as a Motion to Dismiss; however the Court shall treat this dispositive issue as a Motion to Dismiss pursuant to CC'P Civil Rule 12(b)(1). W Plaintiff-Below/Appellant New Castle Auto Auction & Consignments, Inc. (“Appellant”) brought an action for breach of contract in JP Court against Defendants—Belothppellees Eric Riley & Jeanne Riley (“Appellees”) defaulted on a loan. On March 5, 2013, the Justice of the Peace Court dismissed the case for Appellant’s failure to produce evidence of any debt. The docket reﬂects that Appellants originally filed the Notice of Appeal and Complaint on Appeal on March 20, 2013 Via the eFlcx Electronic Filing System, the electronic ﬁling system for the Court. On March 25, 2013, Appellant received a rejection notice from the Court’s electronic ﬁling system, indicating that the Court rejected the appeal due to there being insufﬁcient funds in Appellant Counsel’s eFlex Electronic Filing System account.2 The Notice of Appeal and Complaint on Appeal otherwise complied with 10 Del. C. § 9571 and Court of Common Pleas Civil Rule 723. By letter dated March 28, 2013, Counsel explained that he replenished the tiling funds in the account and re-ﬁled the appeal. The Clerk of the Court accepted the appeal on April 2, 2013. After the Court accepted the appeal, Appellees ﬁled Answers,3 and both parties have participated in the litigation process by engaging in motion practice; attending a pre-trial conference; exchanging written discovery and documents, and jointly preparing a Case Management Order and trial exhibits. The parties have also engaged in mediation and settlement discussions. On October 23, 2014, after Counsel for Appellees raised the potential jurisdictional issue, the Court instructed counsel for both parties to ﬁle legal argument on whether the instant appeal was timely ﬁled. Both parties submitted brieﬁng on the matter. 2 The funds available at the time totaled to $106.50; the filing fees for the appeal totaled to $128.50. 3 Appellees originally ﬁled two separate, but identical Answers, pro .38, but have since retained counsel. [2] Section 9571 of Title 10 of the Delaware Code governs appeals ﬁ'om the Justice of the Peace Court. Court of Common. Pleas Civil Rules 72.1 and 72.3 deﬁne the procedures for ﬁling an appeal under 10 Del. C. § 9571, and “. . . [t]he Court rules are afforded the same status” as the statute.4 An appeal brought pursuant to 10 Del. C. § 9571 “...shall be taken within ﬁfteen days of the ﬁnal judgment.”5 Failure to timely ﬁle an appeal within the ﬁfteen day time period creates “a jurisdictional defect,” which the Court may excuse in unusual circumstances if the untimely ﬁling was beyond the appellant’s control.6 This narrow exception includes a situation where the failure of court personnel results in an untimely ﬁled appeal.7 In their legal argument, Appellees rely on Smith v. Staie8 and Giordano v. imitate9 to support their argument that Appellant’s appeal was untimely ﬁled, and that the untimeliness was attributable to Appellant’s own actions. Appellees equate the conduct of the Smith and Giordano appellants to that of Appellant’s; however the matter at hand is distinguishable from both cases. In both Smith and Giordano, the appellants ﬁled untimely notices of appeal and attributed the untimeliness to a failure of court personnel.10 The Supreme Court found, in both Smith and Giordano, that the untimely ﬁlings were not attributable to Court personnel, but rather, were 4 Tiger Roofing, Inc. v. Schwamman, 201 I WL 6947609 at *2 (Del. Com. Pl. Dec. 13, 201 1). 5 10 Del. C. § 9571(1)); CCP Civ. R. 72.3(b). 6 Riggs v. Riggs, Del.Supr., 539 A.2d 163, 164 (1988). 7 Pulitzer v. DCSE, 32 A.3d 989 at *1 (TABLE) (Del. 201 1) (oiling Bey v. State, 402 A.2d 362, 363 (Del. 1979)). S 812 A.2d 224 (TABLE) (Del. 2002). 9 723 Add 833 (Del. 1998). :0 111 Smith, the appellant sought review of a February 22, 2002 ﬁnal order of Superior Court, and ﬁled the notice of appeal in the Delaware Supreme Court on May 28, 2002. 812 A.2d at *1. The Smith appellant mistakenly ﬁrst ﬁled the appeai in Superior Court, and argued that his ﬁling in the Supreme Court was attributable to the Superior Court Prothonotary, who failed to inform him of his error concerning his original ﬁling. Id. in Giordano, the appellant also claimed that his untimely ﬁling was attributable to cou1t personnel, claiming that the court’s personnel failed to notify him of the court’s entry of a ﬁnal judgment. 723 A.2d at 834. attributable to the appellants themselves.” Unlike Smith and Giordano, the matter at hand does not involve a situation in which Appellant relied on court personnel or untimely ﬁled the appeal. instead, Appellant timely ﬁled the appeal, and properly responded to the rejection notiﬁcation from the Court’s automated electronic ﬁling system. In reviewing the record, the Court ﬁnds that the rejection notice from the Court’s electronic filing system has played a signiﬁcant role in deciding the issue before the Court. Court of Common Pleas Civil Rule 79 governs the Court’s e—Filing Rules, and permits civil cases to be electronically ﬁled.12 Speciﬁcally, CCP Civil Rule 79.1(11)(4)(i) addresses system or user ﬁling errors, and provides the following: If the electronic ﬁling is not ﬁled with the Clerk or served because of (1) an error in the transmission of the document to the Court which was unknown to the sending participant, or (2) a failure to process the electronic ﬁling when transmitted to the Court, or (3) rejection by the Clerk, or (4) other technical problems experienced by i'heﬁler, the Court may upon satisfactory proof enter an order permitting the document to be ﬁled or served nunc pro tune to the date it was ﬁrst attempted to be sent electronically.” In Nicholas v. Nat ’1 Union Fire Ins. Co, the issue before the Supreme Court of Delaware concerned the timeliness of an electronically-ﬁled appeal from Superior Court.14 The appeal, although correctly captioned and in compliance with the Court’s rules, was mistakenly ﬁled in n In Smith, the Court noted that contrary to the appellant’s contention, his pro se status did not excuse his failure to properly comply with the timeﬁ'ame in which he could file an appeal. 812 A.2d at * l. Ultimately, the Court found that “[tjhere [was] no evidence to suggest that the Prothonotary did anything to lead Smith to believe that his appeal had been perfected,” and dismissed the appeal. Id. In Giordano, the Court stated that although the appellant claimed to be unaware of the Court of Chancery’s ﬁnal order, appellant had “a continuing duty of inquiry” to be aware of the entry of the ﬁnal judgment under the speciﬁc circumstances. 723 A.2d at 837—38. ‘ ccr Civ. R. 79(b). ‘3 ccr Civ. R. 79.](h)(4)(i) (emphasis added). M Nicholas v. Nat’l Union Fire Ins. Co, 74 A.3d 634, 635 (Del. 2013), remanded to 83 A.3d 73l (Del. Super. Dec. 20, 2013) Superior Court.15 The day after receiving notiﬁcation of the error, the appellants immediately acted to correct their mistake; however, the time in which the appellants were permitted to file an appeal had organ-ed.26 The Supreme Court noted that “...[a} notice of appeal should not be rejected automatically by the File and Serve system. The sufficiency of an appeal is a legal question to be determined by a judge after notice to the appellant and an opportunity to be heard.”17 Ultimately, the Court found that “[that] process was not followed as a result of the Superior Court’s automated ﬁling system,” and accepted the Nicholas appellants’ notice of appeal nunc pm lune}8 Although the factual scenario differs from Nicholas, the pertinent issue underlying the matter at hand and Nicholas are similar. On March 20, 2013, Appellant’s Counsel properly and timely filed an appeal from a March 5, 2013 final order of the JP Court. Similar to counsel in Nicholas, Appellant’s Counsel complied with the Court’s rules and procedure by ﬁling the appeal within the ﬁfteen—day time period in which it was permitted to appeal. Additionally, Appellantis Counsel’s actions in remedying its filing error are similar to that of the Nicholas appellant because Counsel acted prudently and reasonably. Within three days of receiving the automated rejection notice, Counsel replenished the funds in the eFlex account; notiﬁed the Court; and re—filed the appeal. Although the Nicholas appellant attempted to correct its error one day after the time to appeal had expired, in the matter at hand, Appellant did not receive the automated rejection notice untii March 25, 2013, which was ﬁve days past the deadline to appeal. Under these circumstances, the Court finds that Appellant timely filed the appeal, and that the rejection of the electronic ﬁling was attributable to the Court’s automated system. The 15 Nicholas, 74. A.3d at 635. 1" Id. *7 Id. “Id. at 635—636. Court also ﬁnds the replenishment of the funds in the E-Flex account relates back to the original ﬁling. This issue concerning the automated rejection notice has highlighted a new possible glitch in today’s litigation process. Over the past eighteen years, this Judicial Ofﬁcer has spoken to members of the Delaware Bar at the Fundamentals of the Courts’ Litigation Section and recently the e-ﬁling system, and has discovered that while the e-filing system has enhanced and facilitated the litigation process, it also has generated a new set of technological problems for litigants. The automated rejection notice, such as the one in this matter, may be one of them as it mechanically discards an appellant’s ﬁling without affording the appellant an opportunity to be heard before the Court, which is standard practice in deciding whether an appeal has been perfected. In the interest of manifest justice, the Court cannot dismiss this case on the present facts. The Court ﬁnds that Counsel’s prudent act of replenishing funds relates back to the original March 20, 2013 ﬁling date, and accepts the Appellant’s ﬁling of appeal mmc pro rune. III. OPINION AND ORDER The Court therefore accepts the Notice of Appeal nunc pro tune in accordance with Court of Common Pleas Civil Rule 79. 10:) (49(1). The Court will retain jurisdiction over this matter. IT IS SO ORDERED this lst day of December, 2014. % \C wgick John K. elch, Judge cc: Ms. Tamu White Chief Civil Clerk