Defining Disposed in Legal Matters
Assigning a single, concrete definition to the term "disposed" is impossible, because the word means different things according to the context in which it is used. Still, the general legal meaning of the term "disposed" across proceedings is to gain a final resolution to a contested issue, whether that means the dissolution of a business relationship among partners, the consistent performance of duties according to contract, or the termination of an estate.
The term "disposed of," for example, can refer to a property that has been transferred to a new owner, but not necessarily the actual sale of a property to a buyer. When a tenant or landlord has terminated a lease, within the context of a lawsuit, the premises in question are said to be "disposed." Likewise, if a testator’s will has been admitted to probate, it can be determined that a decedent’s estate has been duly and totally "disposed of." In fact, in an appellate opinion issued by the Superior Court of Pennsylvania, the court wrote that "where there is a sentence disposing of all claims, it cannot be deemed interlocutory." The court further notes that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court had earlier held "a verdict is not final, and thus does not dispose of all claims in the case … if the losing party has a right to a new trial." In this instance, there was a new trial ordered, although it was the second time the trial was ordered due to a problem with the first trial.
Similar to the context of a verdict , a judgment is said to dispose of all parties and claims in a case, mooting the matter. The Superior Court of Pennsylvania has noted that "the entry of judgment in favor of one defendant constitutes the outcome of the action as to all the defendants." In reality, however, a court may stay a verdict or judgment to allow issues to be decided on appeal, which still renders the judgment dispositive in any future action on the same claims.
Often, cases are settled prior to verdict or judgment, "dispositively determining a whole litigation or merely terminating a single issue within a proceeding." Sometimes, when a plaintiff settles a case, they are said to have disposed of the action, without reference to any of the elements of the case or the issues involved that led to the end of the action. In other cases, however, a case terminates at the entry of a judgment on the merits, leaving only the sheriffs execution on the terms of the judgment to be fulfilled. In such cases, a plaintiff who settles a case prior to the entry of judgment may have a series of rights of action against the defendant, such as an action to compel satisfaction of the judgment, an action against the sureties on the judgment bond, and any claim to set-off. All of these actions and matters are actionable in the plaintiff, who "retains a cause of action in regard to those claims which could have been asserted."
Ways a Case Can Be Disposed Of
The first question asked of a court commissioner or judge when checking their calendar for cases scheduled for disposition is, "Is the case going to be disposed today?" If so, we know what "disposed" means; the case will be subject to a final disposition. Under well-known case law, the case may be resolved in three ways – it can be dismissed or resolved on its merits. Dismissals are generally voluntary where the parties agree to dismiss or the claims are barred by a statute of limitations; or involuntary dismissals such as lack of jurisdiction, non-prosecution, forum non-convenience, summary judgment, default, etc. Dismissals usually do not result in a decision on the merits and normally are without prejudice. The second category of dispositions are dispositions on the merits and include the following examples: summary judgment, default judgment, sanctions, garnishment (successor liability), involuntary dismissal of a defendant, and judgments after a trial (excluding interlocutory orders). These results dispose all or a portion of the case on the merits and normally result in the matter being with or without prejudice. A judgment is otherwise considered final if there is a tolling event (such as title being at issue) or if the matter is bifurcated. However, when the defendant receives a default judgment it is a disposition on the merits and usually with prejudice. In that event, the defendant must decide whether to move to set aside the default or live with the fact that the case is disposed on the merits. However, entering of default judgment can occur at various stages of the case. For instance, if a defendant has been served and has not appeared or responded to the allegations, the plaintiff might be entitled to entry of a default judgment shortly after the time to respond to the complaint expires. On the other hand, motion for default may occur later in the case such as on a motion to compel where the defendant failed to appear or respond. Yet, a defendant may ask to set aside any default judgment entered due to excusable neglect in failing to hear about the earlier hearing due to no fault of the defendant. The case would then be set for a hearing for the court to determine whether the default should be set aside. If it is, then the case is still pending. Conversely, if the court set aside the default, the case could still be disposed on the merits based on the merits of the motion. For example, assume that the defendant argued that the complaint was not served while the plaintiff argued that it was served. If the court finds that the plaintiff was correct about service and the defendant’s neglect was not excusable, the court would enter a judgment on the merits that the complaint was served on the defendant and the defendant is liable. Conversely, if the court finds for the defendant that the complaint was never served, then the matter would be disposed for lack of jurisdiction or on the merits of no jurisdiction. Therefore, the entry of a default on certain merits may involve a complicated analysis. But disposition of a case does not always mean that the case is finally resolved nor does it preclude additional complications from occurring such as setting aside of a default.
What Happens After a Case is Disposed
From a practical point of view, a case moving to the status of "disposed" means that for the litigants, the case will be over in this court. A civil case is over at this court (unless you are disappointed with the verdict and file a motion for new trial) and the outcome is final. Except for criminal cases that have been concluded, a "disposed" case has ended the litigation. If, on the other hand, the parties are not satisfied with the outcome of a criminal case, that case may be appealed to a higher court.
On the civil side, a civil case is over-unless an appeal is filed. In other words, it is important to know that "trial" in a civil case means the case is over and the verdict is final. There is some difference in time in a civil case disposition versus the criminal cases, as discussed below. There is a difference in the required elements for an appeal, too.
Disposing of a case means that an order has been entered and the time for an appeal has begun to run. In the case of a certified question decision, if the decision does not fully dispose of the case, the party must wait for the Supreme Court to enter the final disposition before filing the appeal. The time for appealing to the appellate court is the same in both civil and criminal cases.
The time for filing a notice of appeal in a civil case is 30 days from the date of entry of judgment or final order being appealed (unless the order meets criteria for an interlocutory appeal). In contrast, the time for filing a notice of appeal in a criminal case is 14 days after the motion for new trial is overruled, and that time period is mandatory-not even an order granting an extension of time can grant more time.
Circumstances that Lead to Disposal of Case
Common reasons a case is disposed include: Settlement: Parties may want a case disposed when they have settled the underlying matter at issue. Dismissal: Cases may be dismissed by the court or upon the motion of a party. A dismissal by the court is most commonly in the form of a final order and is typically dismissing the case "with prejudice" to permit the parties to move on and prevent the same claims or matters from being brought again. Judgments: An order disposing an Action may also be a Judgment and based upon the merits of the case after trial or an evidentiary hearing held by the court. For example, a court may grant a Default Judgment and enter and Judgments of divorce, child custody and/or child support matters following a Final Hearing, including reference, if any, to the Master’s Report as entered during the aforementioned Proceedings.
Case Disposal vs Other Legal Outcomes
References to a case being "disposed" of should not be regarded as suggesting that a determinative ruling is being issued on the issues in the case. Dispositive rulings are those that end the litigation before the trial court or Appellate Court. Just because a case is disposed does not mean that the final decision has been made.
Cases may be disposed other than through a decision on the issues. For instance, cases may be dismissed, note marked settled, discontinued, withdrawn, adjourned by consent, remanded for further proceedings, closed out, marked inactive or stricken from the calendar, sometimes before an answer has been filed, before a hearing, before a motion for summary judgment and before trial.
Whether the case is dismissed, adjourned, settled, withdrawn, remanded, closed, inactive, stricken from the calendar or marked up for further proceedings, it is still disposed. Because the case has been disposed, and not otherwise decided on the merits, under G.S. 7A-376, the time for appeal runs from entry of the order disposing it. In other words, even it an appeal was not taken from the order that disposed of the case, if it is not yet more than 14 days from the order disposing of the case, the case may still be appealed as no final decision rendering a decision on the merits has been made.
Supreme Court Rule 9 provides: As used in these Rules the words "disposition or "disposed" apply to proceedings concerning an appealable matter that have been fully decided by the trial tribunal. They do not apply to proceedings concerning an appealable matter that have been terminated for any other reason, including the desire of the parties to settle the matter .
The Supreme Court Rules make clear that an appeal will be premature if the matter has not been fully decided or rendered on the merits. Full decision or rendering on the merits occurs when the trial court has exercised its full jurisdiction and "disposed" of the issues in the case.
In discussing when an abatement operates, our Supreme Court held the following: "The final judgment rule does not require a single appeal after all the issues have been litigated. The rule does purposes is [sic] to relieve the burden on our appellate system of partial appeals from interlocutory judgments. . . .abandonment of the right to appeal prior proceedings by irrevocable or enforceable judgment or by a voluntary nolle prosequi by the State offered at trial and accepted by the defendant necessarily accomplishes the purpose we sought to serve by eliminating piecemeal review of interlocutory orders. It is for this reason that in such circumstances we held that the defendant could not appeal prior interlocutory orders."
This is consistent with Rule 9 which states that "the word ‘disposition or ‘disposed’ apply to proceedings concerning an appealable matter that have been fully decided. . .our courts have held consistently that, when an appellant takes an appeal from a final judgment or a final order, the taking of that appeal constitutes an abandonment of those interlocutory rulings which might be assigned as error."
Thus, continued references to a case having been disposed of means only that the event occurred terminating the matter before the trial court or Appellate Court and not that the case has been finally decided on the merits.
Can a Disposed Case Reopen
If the definition of "disposed" is broad enough to cover both finished and unfinished cases, can certain disposed cases be reopened? For instance, when are cases reopened? Can the grounds for reopening (or lack thereof) be challenged in a writ petition at the Court of Appeal? Is there support for a challenge (denial of a writ petition) to the trial court’s order?
In addition to cases that were completed, there are certain cases involving change of custody or modification of spousal support where a case may be reopened by someone who has a legal interest in the case, even after judgment has been entered.
The bases are the failure to comply with the notice requirements in a court clerk’s minute order, ex parte application, or formal hearing. Where there has been no compliance, the court has no discretion to excuse the failure if it has led very possibly to the failure of actual notice to some party, which in turn has led to a miscarriage of justice. (In re Marriage of Riddle (1997) 13 C4th 11, 22, 24.) The bases are: a statutory violation, a constitutional requirement, and an inherent power of the court.
Statutory Violations
In general, Code of Civil Procedure section 1008 applies when an order has been made by the judicial officer outside of court, or after hearing of which there was no notice to the adverse party. (In re Marriage of Pendleton & Hayes (1994) 22 C4th 7, 23 citing In re Marriage of Williams (2001) 94 CA4th 140, 147.) Section 1008 authorizes the courts to reopen matters without the mandatory need for a hearing requested by the person against whom the order was made. However, the court still can exercise its discretion to reopen the matter even without proper notification to the parties. (In re Marriage of Williams, supra; In re Marriage of Das (2009) 175 CA4th 837, 848-849.)
Constitutional Requirement
In the alternative, the Supreme Court affirmed the validity of the statute in In re Marriage of Williams on constitutional grounds. Section 1008 does restrict the court’s power to grant reconsideration to within ten days of the earlier order. But it does not limit the power of the court to order relief based on grounds that those seeking relief could not, by the exercise of reasonable diligence, have raised or discovered. Therefore, the court retains authority to order relief to meet requirements of the due process clause. (In re Marriage of Williams, supra, 94 Cal.App.4th at p. 147 citing, In re Marriage of Poff (2000) 83 Cal.App.4th 836, 840.)
Inherent Power of the Court
While the court has no plenary power to order a reopening, it retains the inherent power to do so where a fair-minded discretion exercised without the hope of profit will produce an advantage to the court and an enhancement of proper public service. (In re Marriage of Williams, supra, 94 Cal.App.4th at pp. 147-48 quoting In re Steven M. (1987) 189 CA3d 107, 114.)
Challenge to Denial of a Writ Petition
When a writ petition is denied in the Court of Appeal, there is no statutory means to challenge the decision, as a matter of right, in the California Supreme Court. (In re Dannenberg 35 C4th 18, 29, fn. 2.)
However, if a trial court was presented with a petition for reconsideration within 10 days of the order, the trial court can make a second ruling, which would be subject to a second petition for writ of mandate to the Court of Appeal.
Effects on Public Records
The concept of a disposed case is important to understanding what information becomes available to the public when they are checking on a person or business. Unless the court records are sealed or restricted, the public may be able to review any civil case that has been filed within a court’s jurisdiction. This information is useful to the general public for many reasons including performing due diligence on a business to find out if it has a history of litigation, if a person has sued or has been sued, if a business has been closed due to bankruptcy filing or dissolution, if employees of a company have been terminated and much more. After a case is disposed a general member of the public may review the file to see who filed the case, when the case was filed, if the case has been settled or has gone through trial, who won the case, status of the case after it has been disposed and more .
A case disposition can occur one of four ways: the matter has been resolved and an order dismissing the case, to include a stipulation or settlement, has been entered; an appeal has been filed with a higher court and that case has been disposed; judgment has been entered and all appeals have been exhausted, or the case has been dismissed for various reasons. Having a case disposed in the court system does not mean there is no record of the case nor does it mean the case has disappeared.
Understanding the definitions and what they mean as those terms apply to public records searches will help you better understand how to interpret the search results properly. Accurate records searches can mean the difference between a successful or failed investigation and are critical to practicing under FCRA, PCI and DPPA guidelines.