Crone, S.J.
Statement of the Case
Patricia Lynne Davidson appeals the small claims court’s entry of judgment for Jamie Hammond. She raises several issues, but we address only one: whether the court erred in determining that Davidson waived her right to a jury trial. Concluding that the court did not follow the Indiana Rules for Small Claims, we reverse and remand with instructions.
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Indiana Small Claims Rule 2(B)(10) elaborates upon the information a plaintiff must provide to the defendant in the notice of claim…The rule plainly states that a defendant’s obligation to pay the additional amount required to transfer the case to the plenary docket does not take effect until after the trial court grants the defendant’s request for a jury trial.
Indiana Small Claims Rule 4(C) also addresses requests for jury trials…Rule 4(C), like Rule 2(B)(10), demonstrates that a small claims court must rule on a defendant’s request for a jury trial. Further, Rule 4(C) does not state that failure to file the additional fee within a set time will waive a right to a jury trial. Instead, the rule provides that failure to timely file a jury trial request will result in waiver.
Next, Indiana Small Claims Rule 13 requires the Judicial Conference of Indiana to create a small claims manual and distribute it to small claims courts, who “shall make it available to every litigant and to such other persons or organizations as the court may deem appropriate.”… The Manual, like the Small Claims Rules, demonstrates that the trial court must rule on a defendant’s jury trial request before the defendant has to pay the fee to transfer the case to the plenary docket.
In the current case, Davidson timely filed a request for a jury trial, but the small claims court did not rule on the request. Instead, the court waited twenty days and then stated that Davidson had waived her right to a jury trial by failing to file the additional fee for the transfer to the plenary docket. The court’s approach does not comply with the plain language of the Small Claims Rules, which require a court to rule on a defendant’s request before the obligation to pay takes effect. The court erred by failing to rule on Davidson’s request to exercise her right to a jury trial, and we must reverse…
Conclusion
For the reasons stated above, we reverse the judgment of the small claims court and remand with instructions. [14] Reversed and remanded with instructions.
May, J., and Mathias, J., concur