Maria Del Castillo v. Ralor Pharmacy

The cause began on September 22, 1982, when the appellee Ralor Pharmacy, Inc. filed an action against the appellant Del Castillo, one of its stockholders, demanding compensatory and punitive damages for the alleged conversion of corporate assets.{/Cite} Del Castillo answered with a denial and affirmative defenses and brought both a compulsory counterclaim against Ralor for fraud in the same transaction and a third-party action against Ramon Alonso, the principal of the the plaintiff-corporation, individually. On January 11, 1983, the trial court dismissed both the counterclaim and the third-party action against Alonso with prejudice. That order was timely appealed on February 2, 1983, as a plenary appeal which was assigned Case No. 83-249 in this court. The plaintiff then filed a motion for summary judgment on the issue of compensatory damages alone. The motion was granted in an April 21, 1983 order which was styled a "partial summary judgment,"{/Cite}{/Cite} but specifically provided for the plaintiffs recovery of amounts certain in compensatory money damages and attorneys fees and for the issuance of execution (which was in fact attempted without success) upon those sums. The order reserved jurisdiction to consider the undisposed of claim for punitive damages.{/Cite} Ms. Del Castillo then filed a timely appeal, Case no. 83-1144, to this court from the April 21, 1983 order. On August 2, 1983, we dismissed both pending appeals -- no. 83-249 from the January 10, 1983 order and no. 83-1144 from that of April 21, 1983 -- for lack of prosecution without consideration of the merits. Nothing further occurred on the case for over two-and-a-half years until March 28, 1986, when, pursuant to a stipulation in which the plaintiff, Ralor, agreed to drip its still outstanding punitive damages claim, the trial court entered a so-called "final judgment incorporating stipulation."{/Cite},{/Cite} The present appeal is taken from that order on the theory that, having disposed of the last remaining claim, it constitutes a reviewable final judgment.{/Cite}