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DeLong v. Vanderbilt University8/15/2005
I.
Patrick "Kyle" Gullahorn enrolled at Vanderbilt University as a freshman in the fall of 1996. He resided in Lupton Hall, a multi-story dormitory located in the Branscomb Quadrangle. On March 22, 1997, Mr. Gullahorn broke a window in a stairwell during an argument with his girlfriend and then fell five stories to his death.
On March 19, 1998, Janice DeLong, Mr. Gullahorn's mother, filed suit against Vanderbilt University in the Circuit Court for Davidson County. Eventually, Ms. DeLong moved for a voluntary dismissal, and the trial court dismissed her suit without prejudice on March 23, 2000. Thereafter, on January 22, 2001, Ms. DeLong filed a similar action against Vanderbilt in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee. Approximately two months later, on March 21, 2001, Ms. DeLong re-filed in the Circuit Court for Davidson County, apparently because of concerns that her federal suit would be dismissed for want of jurisdiction.
The federal suit was not dismissed, and in fact, proceeded steadily through discovery toward trial. Because Ms. DeLong's lawyers were concentrating on readying their federal case, they completely ignored the pending state case. Vanderbilt was never served in the state case, and so it never filed an answer. On April 10, 2002, the circuit court clerk notified Ms. DeLong's attorneys of record that the complaint would be dismissed in thirty days for failure to prosecute unless steps were taken to comply with Local Rule 18.01. Despite this warning, Ms. DeLong's lawyers took no steps to move the state case along. Accordingly, on May 21, 2002, the trial court entered an order dismissing the state case pursuant to Local Rule 18.02.
The May 21, 2002 order dismissing Ms. DeLong's second state complaint did not indicate that the dismissal was not on the merits. As a result, Vanderbilt filed a motion on June 26, 2002 in the pending federal proceeding seeking dismissal of Ms. DeLong's federal complaint on the ground of res judicata. On July 24, 2002, Ms. DeLong filed a Tenn. R. Civ. P. 60 motion in state court seeking to vacate the order of dismissal or to modify it to reflect that the case was not adjudicated on the merits. The trial court denied Ms. DeLong's motion on September 27, 2002.
On October 25, 2002, Ms. DeLong's lawyers filed a notice of appeal from the September 27, 2002 order. They also filed a Tenn. R. App. P. 9 application for an interlocutory appeal asserting that the May 21, 2002 order was not final or appealable because it did not comply with Tenn. R. Civ. P. 58's requirements for a final order. The trial court determined that its May 21, 2002 order was properly entered and, therefore, that it was final and appealable. Accordingly, on February 4, 2003, the trial court denied Ms. DeLong's application for a Tenn. R. App. P. 9 appeal. Ms. DeLong thereafter filed a second notice of appeal from the trial court's February 4, 2003 order.
Ms. DeLong asserts on this appeal that the May 21, 2002 order never became final because it did not fully comply with Tenn. R. Civ. P. 58. She also insists that the trial court erred by failing to grant her motion for Tenn. R. Civ. P. 60 relief from the May 21, 2002 order dismissing her complaint. Vanderbilt responds that any technical shortcoming in the May 21, 2002 order was harmless because one of Ms. DeLong's attorneys of record received actual, timely notice of the order's entry and that the denial of Ms. DeLong's Tenn. R. Civ. P. 60 relief was proper. We have determined that the May 21, 2002 order substantially complied with Tenn. R. Civ. P. 58 and, therefore, was a final order. However, we have also determined that the trial court should h
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