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Rodriguez v. Holland Inc.4/29/1999
ting their claims. See, e.g., Johnson v. White, 249 Or 461, 462-64, 439 P2d 8 (1968) (stating policy underlying ORS 20.080). Even if we agreed with defendant's argument it has no force here, because our only task is to discern the meaning of the phrase "amount pleaded" in ORS 20.080. This court's statutory construction methodology, not policy considerations, guide that inquiry. What is more, reduced to its essentials, defendant's policy argument is an attack on the arbitrator's decision to allow plaintiff to amend her complaint, a decision to which it has not objected heretofore.
We turn to an examination of Wyatt, the case on which defendant and the courts below relied for their Conclusions that plaintiff is not entitled to an award of attorney fees in this case. In Wyatt, the plaintiff pleaded two claims for relief, the first for "timber trespass" and the second for "trespass to land." The aggregate amount of the two claims was more than $4,000. The trial court granted the defendant's motion for partial judgment on the pleadings. The plaintiff then filed a second amended complaint, seeking a maximum recovery of $3,960. After a trial in which the jury awarded the plaintiff actual damages of $10 and punitive damages of $500, the plaintiff petitioned for attorney fees under ORS 20.080. The Court of Appeals reversed the trial court's award of attorney fees, reasoning that the plaintiff's original complaint made a "total demand" of more than $4,000. The Court of Appeals held that the plaintiff "'took himself out of' ORS 20.080 by making a total demand of more than $4,000 in his original complaint." Wyatt, 146 Or App at 734. In arriving at that Conclusion, the Court of Appeals relied on this court's decision in Johnson. That reliance was misplaced.
In Johnson, the plaintiff sued for personal injury in one claim, seeking $5,699.20, and for property damage in another claim, seeking $379.00. The jury found for the plaintiff only on the second claim. The plaintiff sought attorney fees under ORS 20.080 which, at that time, required that the amount pleaded be $1,000 or less. This court held that the plaintiff was not entitled to attorney fees, because the "amount pleaded" requirement of ORS 20.080 applies to the total demand of a complaint, regardless of the number of claims. Johnson, 249 Or at 464. Johnson did not pose the interpretive question raised by Wyatt or by this case, namely, whether the phrase "amount pleaded" refers only to the original pleading in an action. As explained above, we hold that the phrase "amount pleaded" in ORS 20.080 refers to the operative pleading in an action, which can be an amended complaint in which the demand for damages was amended with leave of the court under ORCP 23 A.
The decision of the Court of Appeals is reversed. The judgment of the circuit court is reversed in part, and the case is remanded to the circuit court for further proceedings.
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