Remand, Not Dismissal, of Appeal From Non-Final Judgment in "Unique" Case
This case arose from an automobile collision. Two passengers, Slade and McCutcheon, filed separate actions against the driver of the other car (a minor who was intoxicated at the time of the wreck), the driver’s father, the bar where the driver had been drinking, and an insurer. The cases were consolidated “as to discovery only.”
A joint mediation settled all claims. The plaintiffs then fell into a dispute over how the proceeds would be distributed. The circuit court held a hearing on this issue and entered an “allocation order” in both cases. The court also entered an order in the Slade case, dismissing the suit without prejudice. McCutcheon appealed in both cases. Subsequently, the circuit court entered an “unsigned order” in McCutcheon dismissing with prejudice McCutcheon’s claims against the insurer.
Slade moved to dismiss the appeals. He argued that the allocation order had not finally adjudicated all claims in either case. He insisted that no other final judgment had been entered in either case. And he challenged McCutcheon’s standing to appeal in the Slade suit.
The Alabama Supreme Court picked its way through this small tangle. Citing Rule 54(b), the court first noted that it was “unclear whether the allocation order purports to adjudicate all claims as to all parties in either” case. “[N]ormally, it would be appropriate” to dismiss such an appeal “as being from a nonfinal judgment.” This case, however, was in a “unique posture.” It was “unclear why” the circuit court had entered a dismissal without prejudice in Slade, and also unclear what effect this was meant to have. The “status of the McCutcheon action, including the status of McCutcheon’s claims against each of the named defendants,” was also uncertain. The Court thus chose to remand the cases to the circuit court for clarification of specific questions within thirty days. “If, at the conclusion of 30 days, these actions [were] not returned to [the Supreme Court] with the entry of an appealable judgment (by way of final judgment or a Rule 54(b) . . . certification),” the appeals would be “subject to dismissal.”