Ex parte James R. Allen PETITION FOR WRIT OF MANDAMUS ( 2023 )

Rel: March 31, 2023
Notice: This opinion is subject to formal revision before publication in the advance sheets of Southern Reporter.
Readers are requested to notify the Reporter of Decisions, Alabama Appellate Courts, 300 Dexter Avenue,
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may be made before the opinion is published in Southern Reporter.
ALABAMA COURT OF CIVIL APPEALS
OCTOBER TERM, 2022-2023
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Ex parte James R. Allen
PETITION FOR WRIT OF MANDAMUS
(In re: James R. Allen
v.
Lucille Allen)
(Jefferson Circuit Court, Bessemer Division: DR-13-900535)
THOMPSON, Presiding Judge.
On August 19, 2022, the Jefferson Circuit Court ("the trial court")
entered a judgment divorcing James Allen ("the husband") and Lucille
Allen ("the wife"). The wife filed a postjudgment motion to alter, amend,
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or vacate the divorce judgment on September 1, 2022. The husband did
not file a postjudgment motion. The trial court set a hearing on the wife's
postjudgment motion for November 29, 2022. That same day, after
conducting the hearing, the trial court signed and dated an order
amending the divorce judgment. The amended divorce judgment was not
entered into the State Judicial Information System ("SJIS") until
December 2, 2022.
On December 15, 2022, the husband filed a petition for a writ of
mandamus, requesting this court to vacate "the [trial] court['s] Amended
[Divorce] Judgment as a nullity and[,] therefore[,] void and [to] direct the
trial court to vacate the [amended divorce] judgment entered on
December 2, 2022." In his petition, the husband argues that the amended
divorce judgment is void because it was entered into the SJIS beyond the
90 days allotted for the trial court to rule upon that motion. See Rule
59.1, Ala. R. Civ. P.
The wife argues, in response to the husband's petition, that because
the trial court signed and dated the amended divorce judgment 1 day
before the 90-day deadline in Rule 59.1, the amended divorce judgment
is not void and should not be vacated.
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"A petition for a writ of mandamus is the proper method
for obtaining review of a trial court's authority to rule on a
posttrial motion beyond the time period set forth in Rule 59.1,
Ala. R. Civ. P. See Ex parte Chamblee, 899 So. 2d 244, 244-45
(Ala. 2004) (granting petitions for the writ of mandamus that
"implicate[d] the authority of the trial judge under Rule
59.1...."). See also Ex parte Davidson, 782 So. 2d 237 (Ala.
2000), in which this Court issued the writ of mandamus
setting aside the trial court's order, entered after posttrial
motions had been denied by operation of law pursuant to Rule
59.1, as void."
Ex parte Jackson Hosp. & Clinic, Inc., 49 So. 3d 1210, 1211 (Ala. 2010).
Rule 58, Ala. R. Civ. P., provides:
"(a) Rendition of Orders and Judgments. A judge may
render an order or a judgment: (1) by executing a separate
written document, (2) by including the order or judgment in a
judicial opinion, (3) by endorsing upon a motion the words
'granted,' 'denied,' 'moot,' or words of similar import, and
dating and signing or initialing it, (4) by making or causing to
be made a notation in the court records, or (5) by executing
and transmitting an electronic document to the electronic-
filing system.
"….
"(c) Entry of Order or Judgment. Upon rendition of an
order or a judgment as provided in subdivision (a)(1-4) of this
rule, the clerk shall forthwith enter such order or judgment in
the court record. An order or a judgment shall be deemed
'entered' within the meaning of these Rules and the Rules of
Appellate Procedure as of the actual date of the input of the
order or judgment into the State Judicial Information System.
…"
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Rule 59.1, Ala. R. Civ. P. states:
"[n]o postjudgment motion filed pursuant to Rules 50,
52, 55, or 59 [, Ala. R. Civ. P.,] shall remain pending in the
trial court for more than ninety (90) days, unless with the
express consent of all the parties, which consent shall appear
of record, or unless extended by the appellate court to which
an appeal of the judgment would lie, and such time may be
further extended for good cause shown. … A failure by the
trial court to render an order disposing of any pending
postjudgment motion within the time permitted hereunder, or
any extension thereof, shall constitute a denial of such motion
as of the date of the expiration of the period."
(Emphasis added.)
We note that the Committee Comments to Amendment to
Rule 59.1 Effective October 24, 2008, state:
"In Ex parte Chamblee, 899 So. 2d 244, 248 (Ala. 2004),
the Court 'reaffirm[ed] that for purposes of Rule 59.1 a trial
judge 'disposes of' a pending postjudgment motion only by
properly entering a ruling either denying or granting the
motion.' In 2006 the Committee proposed, and the Supreme
Court adopted, an amendment to Rule 58(c) providing that
electronic input into the State Judicial Information System
constitutes 'entry.' The Committee noted that the elimination
of handwritten entries of judgments prevents judges from
personally making such entries on the docket sheet or the
case-action summary and to that extent 'reinstates the
distinction between the substantive, judicial act of rendering
a judgment and the procedural, ministerial act of entering a
judgment.' Committee Comments to Amendment to Rule 58
Effective September 19, 2006. This distinction also applies to
Rule 59.1 if a judge renders an order granting a postjudgment
motion before the 90th day but the clerk does not
electronically enter the order until after the 90th day. Thus,
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the Committee, at the request of the Court, has proposed this
amendment to Rule 59.1 to cause the timely rendering of an
order to be effective to prevent the automatic denial by
expiration of time, but retaining the requirement that the
order must still be entered for other purposes of these Rules,
such as the running of the time for an appeal pursuant to Rule
4, Ala. R. App. P. The Committee notes that with the rapid
progression of electronic filing, many judges personally enter
orders and judgments in the electronic system. This practice
constitutes simultaneous rendition and entry and thereby
avoids the problem that this amendment addresses."
Here, the divorce judgment was entered on August 19, 2022. The
wife's postjudgment motion was filed on September 1, 2022. Under Rule
59.1, the trial court had 90 days to rule on that motion, or until November
30, 2022. The trial court validly rendered the amended divorce judgment
on November 29, 2022 -- 1 day prior to the 90-day deadline.
Since the amended divorce judgment was rendered within 90 days
of the filing of the wife's postjudgment motion, the amended divorce
judgment is a valid judgment. Rule 59.1.
PETITION DENIED.
Moore, Edwards, Hanson, and Fridy, JJ., concur.
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