Wedel v. American Electric Power Service Corp.
Wedel v. American Electric Power Service Corp.
Opinion of the Court
OPINION ON REHEARING
We issued our opinion in this appeal on December 30, 2005. In that opinion, we examined the propriety of the trial court's
On appeal, the issue presented by the parties concerned the timeliness of the four elections under both the law of the case and the applicable statute of limitations. In our original opinion, we affirmed the trial court's grant of summary judgment to AEP with respect to the election made on September 19, 1975,
On January 30, 2006, AEP filed a Petition for Rehearing arguing that we had raised several issues sua sponte, in violation of its procedural due process rights. AEP contends, for example, that we sua sponte: (1) declined "to apply the law of the case established in Wedel II [Wedel v. American Elec. Power Service Corp., 681 N.E.2d 1122 (Ind.Ct.App. 1997) ] to enforce the 8 year, 90 day deadline in the parties' Agreement as against Beshear's June 22, 1978, June 20, 1983 and September 14, 1983 elections;
However, our opinion did not raise or address any issue sua sponte. In the original appeal, for example, AEP requested that we apply the law-of-the-case doctrine to find the June 22, 1978, June 20, 1983, and September 14, 1983 elections untimely because they were not made within eight years and ninety days of the 1970 Agree
The linchpin to saving any of the overriding royalty in acquired acreage from the perpetuities rule was-the [Wedel II] holding that the 1970 Agreement established an 8 year 90 day deadline for advance royalty elections. Without this holding, the rule against perpetuities would have voided Beshear's advance royalties in acreage not then owned (in 1970) by Beshear or AEP (or we wouldn't be here), just as the rule voided "both Beshear's mined and advance royalty interests" in the unacquired acreage as of or after the deadline.
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. Before the trial court, Beshear contended that the election deadline was a traveling deadline-one that would travel with each new option acquired by AEP-such that Beshear would have a 5 year election period after each new option was acquired, even an option acquired in the year 83000.... Onee again-because it was possible that AEP would not acquire options until past the perpetuities rule, an advance royalty election that had a traveling deadline of 5 years past any option acquisition date would not save anything.
Appellee's Br. at 20-21. In response to this argument, we, as a coordinate court to Wedel II, declined to follow the law-of-the-case doctrine because, in our view, to do so would completely obliterate Paragraph 8 of the 1970 Agreement inasmuch as such paragraph allows the parties to continue to acquire options on additional acreage.
In its petition for rehearing, AEP also challenges our "sua sponte raising and holding that the statute of limitations for Beshear's claim for unpaid advance royalties accrues upon exercise of options by AEP, rather than at the time when AEP refused to pay Beshear's advance royalty elections ...." Appellee's Pet. Reh'g at 5. Again, the statute of limitations issue was not raised sua sponte, but was squarely before this Court on appeal. Indeed, the parties argued, at great length, whether the six-year statute of limitations of Indiana Code Section 34-11-2-7 or the twenty-year statute of limitations of Indiana Code Section 84-11-2-11 applied to Beshear's overriding advance royalties.
However, on rehearing, AEP now contends that the statutory period with respect to Beshear's claim for unpaid royalties began to run when AEP refused to pay the claimed royalties We do not disagree with this latter contention, but wish we were privy to this argument on direct appeal. See Louis D. Brandeis, "The Living Law," 10 Inu. L. Rav. 461, 470 (1916) ("A judge rarely performs his fune-tions adequately unless the case before him is adequately presented."). In the original appeal, we interpreted the parties' statute of limitations contention as an additional claim that the elections were untimely. Apparently, or at least in AEP's view, such an interpretation was in error inasmuch as the timeliness of Beshear's elections were not at issue. Rather, the statute of limitations question concerned the timeliness of the complaint vis & vis AEP's refusal to honor the election. As a result, on rehearing, we now address the argument advanced by AEP in the petition for rehearing.
In so doing, we first recognize that the parties have failed to designate any evidence demonstrating the date on which AEP refused to pay Beshear advance royalties for the June 22, 1978 election.
Nevertheless, even assuming that AEP had immediately refused to pay Beshear on the date of the June 22, 1978 election, the claim for royalties derived from that election is not time-barred, as a matter of law, because Beshear's complaint was filed within the applicable twenty-year statute of limitations period. On appeal and in its petition for rehearing, AEP argues that Indiana Code Section 34-11-2-7, which establishes a six-year statute of limitations period, governs the present action because the overriding advance royalties in dispute represented the use, rents, or profits of real property. The designated evidence, however, does not support this contention.
Rather, the twenty-year statutory period enunciated in Indiana Code Section 34-11-2-11 governs the present dispute. That statute provides, in relevant part: "an action upon contracts in writing other than those for the payment of money entered into before September 1, 1982, not including chattel mortgages, deeds of trust, judgments of courts of record, or for the recovery of the possession of real estate, must be commenced within twenty (20) years after the cause of action accrues.
. AEP does not challenge our decision with regard to the September 19, 1975 election.
. AEP also challenges our recitation of the standard regarding the law of the case doctrine. Appellee's Pet. Reh'g at 3, 14. In Wed-el III, we observed:
[The law of the case doctrine is only a discretionary rule of practice and, despite its availability, courts retain the power to revisit their prior decisions or those of a coordinate court in any circumstance. See State v. Huffman, 643 N.E.2d 899, 901 (Ind. 1994), reh'g denied. Indeed, as the Huffman Court acknowledged, when faced with an apparent conflict between finality and fairness-ie., the goals fostered by the law of the case-the courts should unhesitatingly choose the latter. Id.
839 N.E.2d 1236, 1247 (Ind.Ct.App. 2005). In its petition for rehearing, AEP takes issue with our reference to Huffman, 643 N.E.2d at 901, because the present action is civil in nature and does not involve an intervening change in law. However, a careful reading of Huffman reveals that our Supreme Court borrowed the language at issue, ultimately, from Christianson v. Colt Indus. Operating Corp., 486 U.S. 800, 817, 108 S.Ct. 2166, 100 L.Ed.2d 811 (1988). In relevant part, Chris-tianson held:
A court has the power to revisit prior decisions of its own or of a coordinate court in any circumstance, although as a rule courts should be loathe to do so in the absence of extraordinary circumstances such as where the initial decision was "clearly erroneous and would work manifest injustice."
Id.
. If, for example, Beshear acquired, and assigned to AEP, options in 1972 pursuant to Paragraph 8 of the Agreement, AEP would have three years to decide whether to exercise those options. Assuming AEP exercised its options, Beshear would then have an additional five years in which to elect advance royalties. Thus, under the 1970 Agreement, an election in 1980 would be timely even though it is beyond the judicially imposed eight-year-and-ninety-day deadline from the 1970 Agreement, ie., April of 1978.
. It is important to observe that, in the original opinion, we did not determine that AEP lacked standing to challenge the 1970 Agreement as being void under the rule against perpetuities. Rather, we simply questioned whether it had standing in light of the fact that its interest in the options derived solely from the Agreement. We also noted that we were perplexed that AEP had relied upon the rule against perpetuities to void Beshear's royalty interests, ie., the 1970 Agreement, because AEP's interest in the land or options, which derived from that same agreement, would likewise be void under such rule.
. Because the complaint at issue was filed on August 1, 1986, we assume that AEP intended to write "August 1, 1980."
. The complaint at issue was filed on August 1, 1986. Clearly, regardless of when AEP refused to pay, the June 20, 1983 and September 14, 1983 elections are not time-barred under either the six- or twenty-year statute of limitations period.
. Interestingly, the trial court did not grant summary judgment to AEP, with respect to the June 22, 1978 election, on the basis that the election was time-barred as a result of the six-year statute of limitations period.
. Pursuant to the 1970 Agreement, if, after Beshear assigned an option, AEP chose not to exercise that option, "AEP will re-assign to [Beshear] said options, if [he] so desire[s,]" provided he reimburses AEP for any amounts expended by AEP in connection with that particular coal reserve. Wedel III, 839 N.E.2d at 1239.
. Indiana Code Section 34-11-2-11 also has a ten-year statutory period as follows: "An action upon contracts in writing other than those for the payment of money, and including all mortgages other than chattel mortgages, deeds of trust, judgments of courts of record, and for the recovery of the possession of real estate, must be commenced within ten (10) years after the cause of action accrues." This ten-year period, however, is inapplicable to the present action.
. On rehearing, AEP also contends that we erred by not "affirming the trial court's grant of summary judgment on the issues of fraud, fraudulent concealment, coal seam #3 not being minable, and Counts III and IV for unjust enrichment and tortious breach." Ap-pellee's Pet. Relh'g at 5-6. However, those issues were not before this Couri. Indeed, in its appellee's brief, AEP recognizes that Besh-ear does not challenge those determinations. See Appellee's Br. at 12-13.
We remind AEP that, procedurally, our original opinion addressed the propriety of the trial court's grant of summary judgment in favor of AEP on the issues of the law of the case and the applicable statute of limitations. Our opinion did not grant judgment to either party, but rather, merely held that summary judgment on the two issues before us was inappropriate.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Connie S. WEDEL, as Personal Representative of the Estate of Charles O. Beshear, Appellant-Plaintiff v. AMERICAN ELECTRIC POWER SERVICE CORP. and OHIO VALLEY COAL CO., INC., Appellees-Defendants
- Cited By
- 1 case
- Status
- Published