787
Argued and submitted September 23, 2020; decision of Court of Appeals
reversed, and case remanded to Court of Appeals for further proceedings
April 8, 2021
Katrina OTNES,
Petitioner on Review,
v.
PCC STRUCTURALS, INC.,
an Oregon corporation,
Respondent on Review.
(CC 16CV32466) (CA A167525) (SC S067165)
484 P3d 1049
Using the trial court’s eFiling system, plaintiff submitted a motion for a new
trial to the trial court on the last permissible day for filing such a document.
The clerk rejected the filing for failure to pay the filing fee. Plaintiff corrected
that deficiency the next day, immediately upon notification of the problem, and
requested that the filing relate back to the original submission date. The trial
court, the Appellate Commissioner, and the Court of Appeals determined that
plaintiff’s motion was untimely, each on a different basis. Held: Plaintiff’s motion
for a new trial was timely under UTCR 21.080(5).
The decision of the Court of Appeals is reversed, and the case is remanded to
the Court of Appeals for further proceedings.
En Banc
On review from the Court of Appeals.*
Matthew J. Kalmanson, Hart Wagner LLP, Portland,
argued the cause and filed the briefs for petitioner on review.
Also on the briefs was Ruth A. Casby.
Crystal S. Chase, Stoel Rives, Portland, argued the cause
and filed the brief for respondent on review. Also on the brief
was Karen O’Connor.
NELSON, J.
The decision of the Court of Appeals is reversed, and
the case is remanded to the Court of Appeals for further
proceedings.
______________
* On appeal from Multnomah County Circuit Court, John A. Wittmayer,
Judge. 299 Or App 296,
450 P3d 60 (2019).
788 Otnes v. PCC Structurals, Inc.
NELSON, J.
Plaintiff submitted a motion for a new trial to the
trial court on the last permissible day for filing such a document. The clerk rejected the filing for failure to pay the
filing fee. Plaintiff corrected that deficiency the next day,
immediately upon notification of the problem, and requested
that the filing relate back to the original submission date
under Uniform Trial Court Rule (UTCR) 21.080(5).1 The
trial court, the Appellate Commissioner, and the Court of
Appeals determined that plaintiff’s motion was untimely,
each on a different basis. For the reasons we discuss below,
we conclude that plaintiff’s motion for a new trial was timely
under UTCR 21.080(5). We therefore reverse the decision of
the Court of Appeals.
The relevant facts are few and undisputed. Plaintiff
alleged employment discrimination claims against defendant PCC Structurals, Inc. After a trial, the jury returned
a verdict in defendant’s favor. The trial court entered a general judgment on January 19, 2018. Under ORCP 64B F(1),
plaintiff was permitted to file a motion for a new trial within
10 days of that judgment, by January 29. At 11:31 p.m. on
January 29, plaintiff submitted a motion for a new trial
through the trial court’s electronic filing (eFiling) system.
On January 30, 2018, the trial court clerk informed plaintiff that the motion had been rejected because plaintiff had
failed to include the applicable filing fee when she submitted the motion. Plaintiff determined that resubmission was
permissible under UTCR 21.080(5), which provides, as pertinent here:
“If the court rejects a document submitted electronically
for filing, the electronic filing system will send an email to
the filer that explains why the court rejected the document
….
“(a) A filer who resubmits a document within 3 days
of the date of rejection under this section may request,
as part of the resubmission, that the date of filing of the
1
UTCR 21.080(5) authorizes the trial court to permit the filing date of a
document to relate back to the original date that the document was tendered for
filing if the trial court clerk rejects the filing and the party cures the deficiency
identified by the trial court within three days. We set out UTCR 21.080(5) later
in this opinion.
Cite as 367 Or 787 (2021) 789
resubmitted document relate back to the date of submission of the original document to meet filing requirements.
… A filer who resubmits a document under this subsection must include:
“(i) A cover letter that sets out the date of the original
submission and the date of rejection and that explains the
reason for requesting that the date of filing relate back to
the original submission, with the words ‘RESUBMISSION
OF REJECTED FILING, RELATION-BACK DATE OF
FILING REQUESTED’ in the subject line of the cover
letter[.]”
In accordance with that rule, on January 30, 2018,
plaintiff resubmitted the motion with the appropriate fee
and a cover letter with the following in the subject line:
“SUBJECT: ‘RESUBMISSION OF REJECTED FILING,
RELATION-BACK DATE OF FILING REQUESTED’
Otnes v. PCC STRUCTURALS, INC. UTCR 21.080(5)”
The body of the letter stated,
“The original submission date of Plaintiff’s Motion for a
New Trial under ORCP 64B and filing date for this filing
was January 29, 2018. UTCR 21.080(5)(a)(i).
“The resubmission of this filing is made on January 30,
2018.
“The filing was rejected because of non-payment of the filing fee, which is now included.”
The trial court administrator accepted the corrected motion
and related the filing date back to the original date of submission, affixing a filing date stamp of January 29, 2018, to
the motion and recording January 29, 2018, as the date of
the filing in the court registry.
Defendant filed a response to plaintiff’s motion
for a new trial, objecting to the motion on the merits. In
that response, defendant also objected to plaintiff’s request
for relation back under UTCR 21.080(5)(b) (“A responding
party may object to a request under subsection (a) of this
section within the time as provided by law for the type of
document being filed.”). Defendant argued that plaintiff was
not entitled to relation back and, therefore, her motion was
untimely:
790 Otnes v. PCC Structurals, Inc.
“The Court should deny plaintiff’s request to excuse her
untimely submission (which apparently resulted after she
attempted to file the motion on January 29, but failed to
pay the filing fee) pursuant to UTCR 21.080(5)(a)(i). That
rule provides that ‘the court may, upon satisfactory proof,
permit the filing date of the document to relate back to the
date that the eFiler first attempted to file the document
to meet filing requirements’ only if ‘the eFiling system
[was] temporarily unavailable or if an error in the transmission of the document or other technical problem prevent[ed] the eFiling system from receiving a document.’
UTCR 21.080(6). Late filings are generally not excused if
they result from ‘[t]echnical problems with the filer’s equipment or attempted transmission within the filer’s control.’
Id. Plaintiff’s non-payment of the filing fee was an issue
entirely within her control and does not justify, explain or
excuse her late filing. Plaintiff’s motion should be denied
on timeliness grounds alone.”
(Emphasis in original.) In other words, notwithstanding
that plaintiff had cited UTCR 21.080(5) as her basis for
requesting relation back and that defendant acknowledged
that fact in the first sentence quoted above, defendant went
on to quote from a different subsection of the rule, UTCR
21.080(6), which applies in situations in which the eFiling
system is temporarily unavailable or an error in the document or other technical problem prevents the eFiling system
from accepting the document.2 Defendant then went on to
argue that the requirements of UTCR 21.080(6) for relation
back had not been met. Notably, defendant did not offer any
specific reason for denying plaintiff’s request under UTCR
21.080(5).
2
UTCR 21.080(6) provides, in pertinent part:
“If the eFiling system is temporarily unavailable or if an error in the
transmission of the document or other technical problem prevents the
eFiling system from receiving a document the court may, upon satisfactory proof, permit the filing date of the document to relate back to the date
that the eFiler first attempted to file the document to meet filing requirements. Technical problems with the filer’s equipment or attempted transmission within the filer’s control will not generally excuse an untimely
filing.
“(a) A filer seeking relation-back of the filing date due to system unavailability or transmission error described in this section must comply with the
requirements in subsection (5)(a) of this rule.”
Cite as 367 Or 787 (2021) 791
In reply and at the hearing on the motion, plaintiff argued that the motion was originally submitted within
the proper timeframe but was rejected for nonpayment of
the fee, that the trial court rule provides for relation back
in that circumstance, and that the requirements for relation back had been met: The filing fee had been paid and
the motion was timely resubmitted. Plaintiff also argued
at the hearing that the error was due to the failure of the
eFiling system to indicate that the fee was required. The
trial court denied the motion from the bench, “both because
it was untimely under ORCP 64 and UTCR 21.080(6), and
on the merits.”
Plaintiff filed a notice of appeal within 30 days of
the denial of her motion for a new trial, but more than 30
days after the trial court’s entry of judgment in her case.
Defendant then moved to dismiss the appeal for lack of
jurisdiction, arguing that, because the motion for a new trial
was untimely, the 30-day period for filing an appeal was
not tolled by ORS 19.255(2) (providing that notice of appeal
must be filed within 30 days of judgment, but when motion
for new trial is filed, party must file notice of appeal within
30 days of disposition of motion for new trial). Therefore,
defendant argued, the notice of appeal also was untimely,
and the Court of Appeals lacked jurisdiction.
In July 2018, the Appellate Commissioner dismissed
plaintiff’s appeal. The commissioner first acknowledged that
the matter was governed by UTCR 21.080(5), and not UTCR
21.080(6), because the trial court clerk had rejected the
motion for new trial and sent plaintiff a notice to that effect.
See UTCR 21.080(5) (“If the court rejects a document submitted electronically for filing, the electronic filing system
will send an email to the filer that explains why the court
rejected the document ….”). The commissioner agreed with
plaintiff that, on its face, UTCR 21.080(5) appears to permit
relation back if the trial court clerk rejects a filing for any
reason, when the party promptly cures the deficiency identified by the clerk in the notice of rejection. However, the
commissioner ruled, under ORS 21.100, the trial court has
no authority to grant relation back when the deficiency identified as the basis for rejection is the failure to pay a filing
fee. ORS 21.100 provides, in relevant part:
792 Otnes v. PCC Structurals, Inc.
“A pleading or other document may be filed by the circuit court only if the filing fee required by law is paid by the
person filing the document[.]”
The commissioner reasoned that ORS 21.100 legally bars
the trial court clerk from accepting a motion for new trial
without the accompanying filing fee, which was the reason
for the rejection notice. Here, plaintiff did not tender payment of the filing fee until the 11th day after the date of
the entry of judgment, and, according to the commissioner,
that date was, therefore, the earliest date that the trial
court clerk could lawfully accept the motion for new trial
for filing. As that date was outside the 10 days permitted
for filing such motions, the motion was untimely. According
to the commissioner, the trial court does not have authority to waive the requirements of ORS 21.100, and, therefore,
because the motion for new trial was untimely, plaintiff also
did not timely file her notice of appeal.
Plaintiff then filed a motion for reconsideration of
the Appellate Commissioner’s order. In September 2019,
the Court of Appeals affirmed the decision of the Appellate
Commissioner, on still another basis. The Court of Appeals
concluded that, even assuming that ORS 21.100 does not bar
relation back under UTCR 21.080(5) when a filing is rejected
for nonpayment of a filing fee, the trial court could not be found
to have erred, because, in the court’s view, plaintiff failed to
give a sufficient reason for her request for relation back and
thus did not comply with UTCR 21.080(5). That is, according
to the court, that rule gives the trial court “discretion to consider the nature of the reason for rejection, the reasonableness
of an excuse offered, and the type of document to be filed.”
Otnes v. PCC Structurals, Inc., 299 Or App 296, 302-03,
450
P3d 60 (2019). The court further stated that the filer must
prove that the filing failure is “excusable” or that relation back
is “critical,” “justified,” or “warranted.” Id. at 303. However,
the court stated, plaintiff had offered no such proof:
“She did not … explain that she had made an error in coding or format. Plaintiff did not suggest that she had tried
to pay at the time of filing. She did not explain why relation
back was critical or warranted. Instead, plaintiff simply
said that she had paid the fee. With only that showing,
Cite as
367 Or 787 (2021) 793
plaintiff seemed to expect relation back as an entitlement
due to payment.”
Id. (footnotes omitted). The court thus agreed with defendant that plaintiff had not provided the trial court with
any basis upon which to excuse her failure to pay the fee or
to justify the court’s exercise of discretion to order relation
back. Consequently, it concluded that the trial court had not
abused its discretion in rejecting plaintiff’s request for relation back. Id. at 303-04. Finally, the court held that, because
the motion for new trial was late, it did not extend the time
for filing a notice of appeal after judgment, and, therefore,
plaintiff’s appeal also was untimely, and the court lacked
jurisdiction to entertain it. Id. at 304.
We begin by observing that the trial court erroneously based its ruling denying plaintiff’s request for relation back on plaintiff’s supposed failure to meet the requirements for relation back set out in UTCR 21.080(6). That
subsection applies when “the eFiling system is temporarily
unavailable or if an error in the transmission of the document or other technical problem prevents the eFiling system from receiving a document.” Here, however, plaintiff’s
filing was received on January 29, but the clerk rejected the
filing the following day because the filing fee had not been
submitted with the motion. Because the clerk rejected plaintiff’s motion, UTCR 21.080(5) is the applicable rule. The
trial court thus erred as a matter of law in relying on UTCR
21.080(6) to deny plaintiff’s request for relation back,3 and
its ruling must be reversed unless denial of the motion was
“right for the wrong reason.” See State v. Edmonds, 364 Or
410, 415,
435 P3d 752 (2019) (“Under the ‘right for the wrong
reason’ doctrine, a trial court’s ruling can be affirmed based
on a ground that the trial court did not consider” if certain
conditions are met.).
Defendant presses two theories on which this court
could find that the trial court’s ruling was correct notwithstanding its erroneous reliance on UTCR 21.080(6): (1) the
3
Defendant suggests that plaintiff invited the trial court’s error at the hearing by failing forcefully enough to correct defendant’s and the court’s erroneous
application of UTCR 21.080(6) to her request for relation back. Plaintiff cited the
correct rule and discussed the correct standards for deciding whether to grant
her request. Plaintiff did not invite the error.
794 Otnes v. PCC Structurals, Inc.
Court of Appeals’ theory that plaintiff had not provided a
sufficient reason for requesting relation back under UTCR
21.080(5), and (2) the Appellate Commissioner’s theory that
UTCR 21.080(5) does not apply when a document is rejected
for failure to pay a filing fee.
As noted, the Court of Appeals held that the trial
court could not be said to have abused its discretion in ruling
that plaintiff’s motion for a new trial was untimely, because
plaintiff had not adequately explained reasons justifying or
excusing the filing failure, which the court concluded was
required by UTCR 21.080(5). As a preliminary matter, we
observe that the Court of Appeals erred in reviewing the
trial court’s ruling for abuse of discretion. The trial court
erred as a matter of law in denying plaintiff’s motion on the
basis of her supposed failure to meet the requirements of
UTCR 21.080(6). We turn to consider whether plaintiff met
the requirements of UTCR 21.080(5).
Plaintiff asserts that the Court of Appeals erred
in holding that UTCR 21.080(5) demands that a person
requesting relation back “justify” or “excuse” the filing
failure. She contends that the plain wording of the rule
requires only that a reason—any reason—be given for the
request for relation back, and she provided a reason. She
argues further that the adoption history of the rule confirms
her understanding that the rule requires relation back as a
matter of course unless the opposing party provides a reason for denying it.
In interpreting a provision of the UTCR, we borrow the statutory construction methodology that we apply
to statutes. See Lindell v. Kalugin, 353 Or 338, 349,
297 P3d
1266 (2013) (to determine the meaning of a court rule, “we
apply the precepts that ordinarily apply to the interpretation of statutes and rules”). That is, we discern the meaning
of the words used by examining the text of the rule in its
context, along with any adoption history that we find relevant, in an effort to give effect to the intent of the body
that promulgated the rule. Id.; State v. Gaines,
346 Or 160,
171-72,
206 P3d 1042 (2009) (explaining methodology). In
the case of the UTCRs, the promulgater of the rule is the
Chief Justice of this court. ORS 1.002(1)(a) (the Chief Justice
Cite as
367 Or 787 (2021) 795
of the Supreme Court may make rules and issue orders to
facilitate its authority as administrative head of the judicial
department); Chief Justice Order 12-050 (adopting wording
in UTCR 21.080(5) that is at issue in this case).
UTCR 21.080(5)(a)(i) provides that, when a document is rejected for filing, the filer who later resubmits the
document must include “[a] cover letter that sets out the
date of the original submission and the date of rejection and
that explains the reason for requesting that the date of filing relate back to the original submission[.]” Whether the
Court of Appeals’ reasoning is correct turns on the meaning
of the requirement in that rule that a cover letter “explain[ ]
the reason for requesting” relation back.
We begin by examining the text. We observe that the
rule does not establish any standard for deciding whether to
accept the request for relation back. Unlike UTCR 21.080(6),
it does not require a party to provide “satisfactory proof” of
the reasons for the request.4 It does not expressly require a
party to explain why the filing failure is excusable or why
relation back is critical, justified, or warranted. Indeed,
UTCR 21.080(5)(a)(i) does not expressly require even a good
reason for making the request. Rather, on its face, it appears
that any reason at all would suffice to permit the court to
grant relation back, including simply explaining that the
filing was rejected for nonpayment of an applicable fee and
that the fee had been paid.
Turning to context, both the Court of Appeals and
defendant find UTCR 21.080(5)(b) relevant. That paragraph
provides that a responding party may, within a certain time
frame, object to the request for relation back:
“A responding party may object to a request under subsection (a) of this section within the time limits as provided
by law for the type of document being filed. For the purpose
of calculating the time for objection provided by law under
this subsection, if applicable, the date of filing is the date
that the document was resubmitted to the court under subsection (a) of this section.”
4
UTCR 21.080(6) provides that a court may permit relation back if “satisfactory proof” is provided that eFiling was unable to be completed due to an error in
transmission of the document or other technical problem.
796 Otnes v. PCC Structurals, Inc.
UTCR 21.080(5)(b). The Court of Appeals determined that,
because the rule permits objections to relation back, it necessarily gives the trial court discretion to allow or disallow
relation back to cure a failed filing. Otnes, 299 Or App at 302.
The court stated that relation back is not a matter of right,
because “the rule gives the trial court discretion to consider
the nature of the reason for the objection, the reasonableness of the excuse offered, and the type of document.” Id. For
its part, defendant contends that that paragraph confirms
that relation back is not automatic. Defendant argues that
the inclusion of the opponent’s right to object shows that the
Chief Justice intended to require the requesting party to
explain why relation back is critical, justified, or warranted,
because, without such a requirement, the opposing party’s
opportunity to object would be meaningless. We disagree
that the opportunity for objecting means that a requester
is not entitled to relation back as a matter of course if he or
she meets the requirements of UTCR 21.080(5).
Although UTCR 21.080(5)(b) does provide an
opportunity for the opposing party to provide a reason for
denying the request for relation back, nothing in the text
or context of the rule describes the nature of the objections that can be made. And, as we have said, on its face,
UTCR 21.080(5)(a) appears to permit relation back as long
as any reason at all is given for the request. It does not
require the requestor to prove that he or she is blameless
in the filing failure. The Court of Appeals’ view that the
inclusion of a right to object gives the trial court discretion
to consider the “nature of the reason for the objection [or]
the reasonableness of the excuse offered” is, thus, at odds
with the text of UTCR 21.080(5)(a). Moreover, we observe
that UTCR 21.080(5)(a) does not require the requester to
prove that the statements made in the cover letter are
correct or even to attest to their veracity. In those circumstances, the purpose of providing an opportunity to
object may simply be to permit the opposing party to dispute whether the requirements of UTCR 21.080(5), such as
they are, have been met—namely, that the document was
refiled within three days and the deficiency was corrected.
In that situation, an opponent’s right to object would not be
meaningless.
Cite as 367 Or 787 (2021) 797
Finally, an interpretation of UTCR 21.080(5) that
requires a filer to establish that the filing failure was “excusable” or that relation back is “critical,” “justified,” or “warranted” would necessarily also require the court to reject
any request for relation back that does not rise to that standard, whether the opposing party objects or not. Nothing
in the rule gives the court that authority. And, as we have
stated, the rule does not expressly require even a good reason for requesting relation back.
Examination of the adoption history of UTCR
21.080(5) does not change our view, based on our consideration of text and context, that the rule permits relation
back if any reason at all is given. The parties agree that the
2008 version of UTCR 21.080(5) unambiguously provided for
automatic relation back of rejected electronic filings upon
timely resubmission.5 UTCR 21.080(5) (2008) provided:
“If the court rejects a document submitted electronically
for filing, the court will affix the date and time of rejection
on the document and return the document to the filer with
a notice that explains why the court rejected the document.
The court may require a filer to resubmit the document to
meet the filing requirements. If the court requires a filer
to resubmit the document, the date and time of filing of the
resubmitted document relates back to the date and time of
the filing of the original document. The court may, by order,
strike the document from the court’s file in the action if
the filer receives notice from the court and does not resubmit the document within the time period specified by the
court.”
(Emphasis added.) As set out in the emphasized passage, if
the court required resubmission because a document was
rejected, “the date and time of filing of the resubmitted document relates back to the date and time of the filing of the
original document.”
The rule was amended in 2011, as relevant here, to
provide a time frame for resubmission of the rejected document, but the 2011 version continued to provide for automatic relation back:
5
Before 2008, electronic filing did not exist.
798 Otnes v. PCC Structurals, Inc.
“If the court rejects a document submitted electronically
for filing, the court will affix the date and time of rejection
on the document and electronically return the document to
the filer with a notice to all parties who have been provided
notice of filing under UTCR 21.100(2) that explains why the
court rejected the document. The court may give a filer the
opportunity to resubmit the document within 3 days of the
day and time of rejection to meet the filing requirements.
If the court gives a filer the opportunity to resubmit the document and the filer does so within the time allowed, the date
and time of filing of the resubmitted document relates back
to the date and time of the filing of the original document
and the time to respond is extended by the number of full
or partial elapsed days from the time of the rejection notice
to the time of the resubmission of the document to the
court. The court may, by order, strike the document from
the court’s file in the action if the filer receives notice from
the court and does not resubmit the document within the
time period specified by the court.”
UTCR 21.080(5) (2011) (emphasis added).
In 2012, UTCR 21.080(5) was amended to adopt
its present wording, requiring a party to request relation back and to do so in a cover letter “that explains the
reason” for requesting relation back. Chief Justice Order
12-050.6 Defendant argues that the background to the 2012
amendments—specifically, statements in certain emails
and memoranda by a member of the Law and Policy Work
Group who helped draft the proposed amendments—reflect
the Chief Justice’s intention to require a party requesting
relation back to provide “good cause” for doing so in the
cover letter explaining the reason for relation back. In support of that argument, defendant points to two statements
in the rule’s adoption history. In one, the minutes from the
May 31, 2012, workgroup meeting state that “[i]t was suggested that the rule more closely reflect the similar rule in
the appellate system, which allows relation-back only upon
request and a showing of good cause.” In another, an email
from one of the workgroup members stated that the group
had
6
UTCR 21.080 was amended again in 2014, in ways not relevant to our resolution of this case. Chief Justice Order 14-049.
Cite as 367 Or 787 (2021) 799
“talked about narrowing the rule so that a party must
request a 3-day relation-back (for instances in which the
filed date mattered) & that a court would decide the request
(submitted in letter form) as part of resolving the merits of the underlying document. We also discussed that a
responding party could object to the relation-back request,
and we generally discussed the ‘time for response’ rules set
out in the ORCPs.”
Those statements do not persuade us that the Chief Justice
intended to require a filer to prove that good cause exists
for permitting relation back. For one thing, no requirement
that a party establish the existence of good cause for relation back ultimately was included in the amended rule.
Moreover, defendant concedes that the adoption history contains no substantive discussion of the proposed requirement
in subsection (5)(a) requiring a party to explain the reason
for the relation-back request.
Defendant nonetheless contends that relation back
was no longer automatic after the 2012 amendments. We
disagree. It is true that, unlike in the earlier versions of the
rule, the 2012 amendments required parties to specifically
request relation back by attaching a cover letter that included
the words “RESUBMISSION OF REJECTED FILING,
RELATION-BACK DATE OF FILING REQUESTED” in the
subject line and that “explain[ed] the reason” for requesting
relation back. In addition, from 2012 on, as we have discussed, an opposing party has had the right to object to the
request for relation back. However, the adoption history of
the rule suggests that those changes were intended to provide clarity to the trial court as to when relation back was
needed and to simplify the process for filers and the courts,
because, in most instances, the date the document is entered
is not critical and, in the absence of a relation back request,
the filing date would be the date that a document was resubmitted to the court and not the date that it was originally
submitted. Nothing that defendant has pointed to in the
adoption history suggests that the workgroup intended to
or did incorporate the concept of a “good cause” showing in
the text of UTCR 21.080(5). Nor do we find anything in the
adoption history to suggest an intent to give the trial court
discretion to deny requests for relation back.
800 Otnes v. PCC Structurals, Inc.
In short, we conclude that nothing in the text, context, or adoption history of UTCR 21.080(5) suggests that,
in requiring the filer to timely request relation back, and in
permitting the opposing party to object, the Chief Justice
intended that section to require a filer to provide good cause
for requesting relation back.
As noted, defendant also contends, alternatively,
that, even if plaintiff’s cover letter was sufficient to satisfy
the requirements of UTCR 21.080(5), relation back is not
available when the reason for the rejection of the filing was
the failure to pay a required filing fee. Defendant adopts
the reasoning of the Appellate Commissioner to argue that
UTCR 21.080(5) cannot grant a trial court authority to permit the filing date of a document to relate back to the original date that the document was tendered for filing if the
document was not originally accompanied by the required
filing fee, because, under ORS 21.100, a document is not
“filed” until the filing fee is paid.
To repeat, ORS 21.100 provides, in relevant part:
“A pleading or other document may be filed by the circuit court only if the filing fee required by law is paid by the
person filing the document[.]”
Defendant argues that the plain text of that statute bars the
trial court clerk from legally accepting a document for which
a filing fee is required by law until the party submitting
the document tenders payment of the filing fee. In addition,
it points out that ORS 21.200(1)(c) requires a filing fee for
motions for a new trial, and ORS 21.200(4) provides that
“[t]he clerk shall file a motion or response that is subject to a
fee under this section only if the fee required by this section
is paid when the motion or response is submitted for filing.”
Defendant explains that, under ORS 1.002(1) and (4),
the uniform trial court rules promulgated by the Chief
Justice must be “consistent with” applicable provisions of
law. Here, defendant contends, ORS 21.100 and ORS 21.200
(1)(c) are two such provisions of applicable law. Therefore, it
argues, UTCR 21.080(5), which permits the clerk to relate
the filing date of a rejected document back to the date it was
submitted if the deficiency is cured within three days of the
Cite as 367 Or 787 (2021) 801
filer receiving notice of the deficiency, cannot confer authority on the clerk to “file” any document that was rejected for
failure to pay the filing fee on any date before the fee was
paid.
Defendant is correct that ORS 21.100 and ORS
21.200(4) require payment of the appropriate filing fee as
a condition for the trial court’s acceptance of a document
for “filing.” However, we disagree with defendant’s characterization of the court rules as permitting the trial court
to legally accept a document for filing without payment of
a required fee. In fact, UTCR 21.050(1) incorporates and
implements the requirement of fee payment as a condition of
filing in the electronic filing context; that rule provides that
“a filer must pay the fee for filing a document electronically
at the time of electronic filing.” And UTCR 21.080(5) applies
to rejected filings, including those that are rejected because
of nonpayment of fees.7
It does not follow from the fact that a clerk cannot
accept a filing without a fee that a filing cannot relate back
to the original submission date once the fee is paid. Neither
ORS 21.100 nor ORS 21.200 address relation back, and neither statute prohibits application of that doctrine when payment of a required fee is received. As we have explained,
UTCR 21.080(5)(a) provides a three-day grace period to
cure a filing error. That rule is not inconsistent with ORS
21.100, which merely provides that the court clerk may not
accomplish the legal act of filing a document until payment
is received. ORS 21.100 is silent as to the date of filing. It
does not establish a deadline for filing. It does not impose a
time limitation for the receipt of payment. And it does not
address what relief may be granted when an attempted filing is delayed because of a payment error. In short, nothing
in ORS 21.100 prohibits, allows, or even addresses relating
back a filing date to meet a time restriction or deadline.
Plaintiff’s electronic submission of the motion for
a new trial was received by the trial court on January 29,
7
See Oregon Judicial Department Policy and Standards for Acceptance of
Electronic Filings in the Oregon Circuit Courts § (2)(f) (2015) (circuit court will
reject a filing if a party fails to pay any fee for a filing that requires a specific
statutory filing fee).
802 Otnes v. PCC Structurals, Inc.
2018. But, consistent with ORS 21.100 and UTCR 21.050,
it was not accepted for “filing” that day because of plaintiff’s failure to pay the filing fee. In permitting relation back
after plaintiff paid the filing fee within the three-day grace
period, UTCR 21.080(5) permitted the constructive alteration of the date of “filing” to reflect the date of the original
attempted filing. It did not permit the trial court to “file”
plaintiff’s motion before the fee was paid in violation of ORS
21.100.
To summarize, we hold that ORS 21.100 does not
render relation back unavailable when the reason that a document was rejected was the nonpayment of a required fee.
We also hold that, in requiring a filer to “explain the reason”
for requesting relation back, the rule merely requires the
filer to provide a reason for the request. Plaintiff explained
that she was requesting relation back because her motion for
a new trial had been rejected for filing because of a failure
to pay the filing fee and the filing fee had been paid. That
explanation was sufficient to comply with the requirements
of UTCR 21.080(5), and Court of Appeals erred in holding
that it was not. Defendant objected to plaintiff’s request for
relation back under UTCR 21.080(6), but it did not provide
any reason for objecting under UTCR 21.080(5). Therefore,
the trial court erred in ruling in defendant’s favor and denying plaintiff’s request.
The decision of the Court of Appeals is reversed,
and the case is remanded to the Court of Appeals for further
proceedings.
