Giancola v. Azem (Slip Opinion)
Giancola v. Azem (Slip Opinion)
Opinion
*595
{¶ 1}
In this discretionary appeal from a judgment of the Eighth District Court of Appeals, we consider the limitations of the law-of-the-case doctrine. The law-of-the-case doctrine provides that legal questions resolved by a reviewing court in a prior appeal remain the law of that case for any subsequent proceedings at both the trial and appellate levels.
Nolan v. Nolan
,
I. Case Background
A. First Proceeding in the Trial Court
{¶ 2} Giancola was admitted to Walton Manor Health Care Center on October 24, 2011. At the time of his admission, Giancola *1197 was suffering from multiple serious medical conditions. An admission agreement and an arbitration agreement were executed on October 28, 2011. Giancola remained at the care center until December 15. He later passed away on December 31, 2011. After his death, Paulette Kolosai, the first administrator of Giancola's estate, sued appellants, Cleveland Healthcare Group, Inc., Saber Healthcare Group, L.L.C., and Saber Healthcare Holdings, L.L.C. (collectively, "Walton Manor"), alleging both a survival claim and a wrongful-death claim. Kolosai claimed that Giancola's death was caused by injuries that he sustained while he was at Walton Manor.
{¶ 3} Walton Manor filed a motion to stay the civil proceedings and to compel arbitration based on the terms of the arbitration agreement, arguing that Giancola had entered into a binding arbitration agreement with Walton Manor.
{¶ 4} In opposition to the motion, Kolosai argued that the estate was not bound by the arbitration agreement because Giancola had not signed it and that the wrongful-death claim was not subject to arbitration. In support of her argument, Kolosai offered the deposition testimony of a Walton Manor employee who testified that Giancola's mother had signed the agreement. The trial court found *596 that Giancola's mother had signed the arbitration agreement and that she had had apparent authority to bind her son to its terms. The trial court then granted Walton Manor's motion and ordered arbitration of the survival action. Kolosai appealed.
B. First Appeal: Kolosai I
{¶ 5} In the first appeal, Kolosai argued that the trial court had erred in finding that Giancola's mother had apparent authority to bind Giancola to arbitration.
{¶ 6}
Walton Manor countered that Giancola, not his mother, had signed the arbitration agreement. Walton Manor attached documents to its brief that it argued proved that Giancola had signed the agreement.
Kolosai v. Azem,
8th Dist. Cuyahoga No. 100890,
With Walton Manor being deemed to have withdrawn any argument that the court did not err by finding that the mother had apparent authority to bind Giancola to arbitrate any disputes arising from his care and treatment as a patient at the nursing home, we sustain the first assignment of error. The second assignment of error is moot.
Id. at ¶ 10. Thereafter, the court of appeals reversed and remanded for further proceedings consistent with its opinion. Id. at ¶ 11.
C. Second Proceeding in the Trial Court
{¶ 7} On remand, Walton Manor renewed its motion to stay the proceedings and submitted the supplemental documents previously presented to the court of appeals, along with a report from a handwriting expert, Robert Kullman. Kolosai responded by asserting that the law-of-the-case doctrine barred Walton Manor's argument, the supplemental documents were not new evidence under the Civ.R. 60(B)(2) standard for granting a new trial, Kullman's report was not reliable, and Walton *1198 Manor had waived its right to pursue arbitration by participating in depositions on the merits of the matter prior to submitting its renewed motion for arbitration. *597 {¶ 8} Two months later, Walton Manor filed an affidavit signed by Kullman in support of its renewed motion to stay and to compel arbitration. Following the hearing on the motion, Kolosai moved to strike Kullman's affidavit. The trial court noted that its decision granting Walton Manor's motion to stay and to compel arbitration had been "reversed by the court of appeals." It denied Kolosai's motion to strike, granted the renewed motion to stay, and referred the appropriate counts in the complaint to arbitration, finding that "Nicholas Giancola signed the admission agreement and acknowledgment regarding arbitration, and is, therefore, bound by its terms." Kolosai appealed.
D. Second Appeal: Kolosai II
{¶ 9} In lieu of addressing the assignments of error presented, the appellate court sua sponte raised the issue of the law-of-the-case doctrine. In a two-to-one decision, the appellate court held that the trial court had violated the law-of-the-case doctrine when it reconsidered the issue of who had signed the arbitration agreement.
{¶ 10}
Walton Manor filed a motion for reconsideration of that decision or, in the alternative, an application for a rehearing en banc. Upon reconsideration, the appellate court held that the law-of-the-case was established in
Kolosai I
: the arbitration agreement could not be enforced under a doctrine of apparent authority.
E. Proposition of Law
{¶ 11} Walton Manor presents one proposition of law in its memorandum in support of jurisdiction. That proposition of law states:
A trial court must have broad discretion to hear evidence and control its docket when addressing a case remanded for further proceedings and the law of the case doctrine shall be limited to legal issues and account for an expanded record containing new evidence to address factual issues on remand.
{¶ 12} In its merit brief to the court, Walton Manor presents two propositions of law. Because we accepted only the proposition of law presented in Walton Manor's jurisdictional memorandum, we decline to expand our review.
*598 II. Law and Analysis
{¶ 13}
The narrow issue before this court-whether the appellate court properly applied the law-of-the-case doctrine-presents a question of law; therefore, we apply a de novo review standard.
Arnott v. Arnott
,
{¶ 14}
The law-of-the-case doctrine has long existed in Ohio jurisprudence. " '[T]he doctrine provides that the decision of a reviewing court in a case remains the law of that case on the legal questions involved for all subsequent proceedings in the case at both the trial and reviewing levels.' " (Brackets sic.)
Hopkins v. Dyer
,
{¶ 15}
Although the law-of-the-case doctrine generally is "a rule of practice rather than a binding rule of substantive law,"
Nolan
at 3,
{¶ 16}
Accordingly, a trial court is without authority to extend or vary the mandate issued by a superior court,
id. at 4,
{¶ 17}
Our decision in
State ex rel. Baker v. State Personnel Bd. of Rev.
,
{¶ 18}
In this case, the appellate court in
Kolosai I
{¶ 19} However, Walton Manor claimed that Giancola, not his mother, had signed the arbitration agreement and sought to supplement the record with new evidence supporting that argument. Id. at ¶ 3. Recognizing that "Walton Manor [had] repudiated the rationale for the court's decision to refer the matter to arbitration," id. at ¶ 6, the Eighth District concluded that the trial court erred in enforcing the arbitration agreement under the theory that Giancola's mother signed the agreement with apparent authority because the "appellee [Walton Manor] concedes [that that theory] is factually wrong," id. at ¶ 9. The appellate court deemed Walton Manor "to have withdrawn any argument that the court did not err by finding that the mother had apparent authority to bind Giancola to arbitrate any disputes," id. at ¶ 10, and it "reversed and remanded" the matter "to the trial court for further proceedings consistent with [its] opinion," id. at ¶ 11.
{¶ 20}
Although the appellate court in
Kolosai I
declined to review Walton Manor's new evidence that Giancola had signed the arbitration agreement
*600
because it would have required the court to add matter to the record, it did not decide that Giancola had signed the agreement or direct the trial court not to consider additional evidence that would refute the administrator's claim that the mother had signed the agreement. And contrary to the appellate court's assertion in
Kolosai II
,
{¶ 21}
Rather, " '[u]pon remand from an appellate court, the lower court is required to proceed from the point at which the error occurred.' "
State ex rel. Douglas v. Burlew
,
III. Conclusion
{¶ 22}
Only those legal questions resolved by a reviewing court are the law of that case.
Nolan
,
Judgment reversed and cause remanded.
O'Donnell, French, Hall, and DeWine, JJ., concur.
O'Connor, C.J., dissents, with an opinion joined by Fischer, J.
Michael T. Hall, J., of the Second District Court of Appeals, sitting for O'Neill, J.
*1201 {¶ 23} I dissent. I would dismiss this case as having been improvidently accepted. I would further order that the opinion of the court of appeals may not be cited as authority except by the parties inter se.
Fischer, J., concurs in the foregoing opinion.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- GIANCOLA, Admr., Appellee, v. AZEM ; Walton Manor Health Care Center Et Al., Appellants.
- Cited By
- 62 cases
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- Judgments-Remand-Law-of-the-case doctrine-Only those legal questions resolved by a reviewing court are the law of a case-On remand, parties are returned to the same position they were in prior to the appeal.