Altice, J.
Case Summary
Keyed In Property Management, LLC (Keyed) filed a small claims action against Heather Harvey for unpaid rent and designated Betsy Arnold, a fulltime employee, to represent Keyed in the matter rather than hiring an attorney.
Ind. Small Claims Rule 8(C) allows such a designation only where claims do not exceed $1500 and permits an LLC to waive any claim in excess of this amount in order to proceed without an attorney. On appeal, Harvey contends that the trial court erroneously interpreted and applied this rule, resulting in an excessive damages award.
We affirm.
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Harvey contends that the trial court misconstrued S.C.R. 8(C) by considering alleged damages in excess of $1500 and deducting the security deposit and sums she paid for repairs from that larger amount…
The purpose of requiring a corporate entity – or in this case an LLC – to be represented by legal counsel, unless the limited exception of S.C.R. 8(C)(3) applies, is to curtail the “unlicensed practice of law, the attendant ills of which can be exacerbated when one of the litigants is a corporation.” Stillwell v. Deer Park Mgmt., 873 N.E.2d 647, 649 (Ind. Ct. App. 2007) (quoting Yogi Bear Membership Corp. v. Stalnaker, 571 N.E.2d 331, 333 (Ind. Ct. App. 1991)), trans. denied
As recognized by Harvey and the trial court, S.C.R. 8(C) can be analogized to statutes imposing jurisdictional limits in small claims actions, such as Ind. Code § 33-29-2-2(b)(1)… Because there is a dearth of applicable caselaw addressing the small claims rule at issue here, we look to cases applying the statutory jurisdictional limits that similarly allow for the waiver of the amount of any claims in excess of said limit.
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In both of the above cases, the plaintiffs alleged damages above the jurisdictional amount and setoffs were taken against that greater amount. Based on the net proven damages, the jurisdictional limit was then applied, allowing the plaintiff to recover the full jurisdictional limit despite a setoff for the security deposit. In other words, the plaintiff was permitted to waive net damages in excess of the jurisdictional limit, and setoffs and counterclaims were not subtracted from the jurisdictional limit.
We fail to see, and Harvey does not explain, why a different calculation should apply with respect to S.C.R. 8(C). [Footnote omitted.] Although Keyed alleged damages in excess of $1500, it did not seek or obtain a damage award over $1500. Cf. Stillwell, 873 N.E.2d at 650 (“Because Deer Park sought and received damages over $1500, the plain language of Small Claims Rule 8 required it to be represented by counsel from the initiation of its claim.”). Rather, Keyed consistently requested a judgment limited to $1500 (with $125 court costs) in its Notice and at the evidentiary hearing. The trial court properly applied S.C.R. 8(C) and entered judgment in favor of Keyed in the amount of $1500 plus $125 in court costs. For the same reasons, the court did not err in denying Harvey’s MTCE.
Judgment affirmed.
Mathias, J. and Weissmann, J., concur.