Rhode Island Supreme Court, Vermont Mutual Insurance Comp. v. New England Property Services Group, LLC, Docket No. 2023-335

Subject Matter Jurisdiction

 

Jurisdiction

 

Rhode Island Law

 

 

 

(…) We first turn our attention to NEPSG’s argument as to subject matter jurisdiction. This Court has long acknowledged that a “challenge to subject matter jurisdiction may not be waived by any party and may be raised at any time in the proceedings.” E.T. Investments, LLC v. Riley, 262 A.3d 673, 676 (R.I. 2021) (quoting Federal National Mortgage Association v. Malinou, 101 A.3d 860, 866 (R.I. 2014)). We would note at the outset that it is our view that in actuality NEPSG is not genuinely contesting the Superior Court’s jurisdiction over this matter. It is clear that the Superior Court had jurisdiction under G.L. 1956 § 8-2-14 and the Arbitration Act. Rather, NEPSG is actually questioning the nature of the appraisal process and, more specifically, whether it should be considered arbitration. Thus, it appears to us that NEPSG is questioning the authority of the Superior Court to decide this particular issue and not the court’s jurisdiction as such. Simply put, NEPSG is contending that the Superior Court improperly exercised its jurisdiction. See Cronan v. Cronan, 307 A.3d 183, 191 (R.I. 2024) (“This Court has noted* * * that the term subject-matter jurisdiction is often misused; when properly used, it refers only to a court’s power to hear and to decide a particular case, and not to whether a court, having the power to adjudicate, should exercise that power.”) (internal quotation marks, brackets, and deletion omitted); see also Pollard v. Acer Group, 870 A.2d 429, 433 (R.I. 2005) (“The term ‘lack of jurisdiction over the subject matter’ means quite simply that a given court lacks judicial power to decide a particular controversy.”).

 

 

 

(Rhode Island Supreme Court, Vermont Mutual Insurance Comp. v. New England Property Services Group, LLC, March 20, 2025, Docket No. 2023-335-Appeal)