Brookshire Groc. Co. v. Morgan , 2017 Ark. 221 ( 2017 )

Cite as 2017 Ark. 221
SUPREME COURT OF ARKANSAS
No. CV-17-268
BROOKSHIRE GROCERY COMPANY Opinion Delivered June 8, 2017
APPELLANT PETITION FOR REVIEW
V. FROM THE ARKANSAS COURT
OF APPEALS
CLEON MORGAN, SR. [NO. CV-16-850]
APPELLEE
COURT OF APPEALS OPINION
VACATED; CASE REMANDED;
IN RE MEMORANDUM OPINIONS,
16 ARK. APP. 301, 700 S.W.2D 63 (1985)
OVERRULED; ARKANSAS SUPREME
COURT RULE 5-2(e) AMENDED.
PER CURIAM
On April 3, 2017, appellants filed a petition with this court asking us to review an
opinion handed down by the court of appeals on March 15, 2017. In this Workers’
Compensation case, neither the Full Commission nor the court of appeals issued a formal
opinion. The Full Commission merely adopted the Administrative Law Judge’s findings, and
the court of appeals issued a memorandum opinion. In its memorandum opinion the court
of appeals stated:
It is the Commission’s duty, not ours, to make credibility determinations, to weigh the
evidence, and to resolve conflicts in the evidence and testimony. Green v. N. Little
Rock Sch. Dist., 2016 Ark. App. 512. Because the sole issue now before us is the
sufficiency of the evidence, and because the Commission’s opinion adequately explains
its decision, we affirm by memorandum opinion. In re Memorandum Opinions, 16
Ark. App. 301, 700 S.W.2d 63 (1985) (per curiam).
Brookshire Grocery Co. v. Morgan, 2017 Ark. App. 170. We note, however, that the issue on
Cite as 2017 Ark. 221
appeal was not one of disputed fact but whether the facts as presented led to the legal
conclusion that the injured party, a Jefferson County Deputy Sheriff, was an employee or
independent contractor when, while working as a security guard at a grocery store, he was
injured while pursuing a shoplifter that he had arrested and who subsequently escaped.
We decline to consider appellant’s petition without the issue first being analyzed by a
court of law. The court of appeals’s opinion provides no meaningful analysis. We therefore
vacate the court of appeals’s opinion and remand this case to the court of appeals to properly
analyze this case.
When the court of appeals handed down its per curiam In re Memorandum Opinions, 16
Ark. App. 301, 700 S.W.2d 63 (1985), the court of appeals was just six years old and consisted
of only six judges. The court faced a large backlog of cases, and as a means of managing a
crushing workload, it promulgated its memorandum-opinion policy.
Since that time, however, the legislature doubled the number of judges on the court
of appeals. Moreover, while the court of appeals averaged 869 cases per year disposed of by
written opinion during the years 2001-2009, in 2016 it handed down only 570 written
opinions. Accordingly, the rationale for handing down memorandum opinions no longer
exists. We therefore overrule In re Memorandum Opinions, 16 Ark. App. 301, 700 S.W.2d 63
(1985) (per curiam). Hence forth, all briefed cases submitted to the court of appeals must be
disposed of by full, written majority opinions.
Finally, Arkansas Supreme Court Rule 5-2(e) has previously allowed the court of
appeals to issue memorandum opinions. Effective immediately, Rule 5-2(e) is amended to
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read as follows:
(e) Opinion Form. Opinions of the Court of Appeals shall may only be in conventional form.
or memorandum form.
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