Case ID: mont_203/html/0278-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "MR. JUSTICE SHEA", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

STATE OF MONTANA, ex rel., Marcia Lynn DEWYEA, Petitioner and Appellant, v. LARRY RAY KNAPP, Respondent and Respondent.
    No. 82-205.
    Submitted on Briefs Jan. 31, 1983.
    Decided March 31, 1983.
    661 P.2d 37.
    John M. McRae, Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., Child Support Enforcement Bureau, Missoula, John Frederick, County Atty., Poison, for petitioner and appellant.
    Larry P. Knapp, pro se.
   MR. JUSTICE SHEA

delivered the opinion of the Court.

This is an appeal from a Lake County District Court proceeding. We do not reach the merits of this appeal because we do not have jurisdiction to hear and determine this appeal. There has not been a final order or judgment in the matter. The District Court file includes only a minute entry which states the court’s intention. A minute entry directng judgment to be entered is not a judgment. Lisker v. O’Rourke (1903), 28 Mont. 129, 72 P. 416. Rule 1, M.R.App.Civ.P. requires a final judgment or order to be entered before an appeal can be taken.

Nor has the appeal been certified by the trial court under Rule 54(b), M.R.Civ.P. We discussed the requirements of a Rule 54(b) certification in Roy v. Neibauer (1980), Mont., 610 P.2d 1185, and we need not restate them here.

The appeal is dismissed without prejudice.

MR. CHIEF JUSTICE HASWELL and JUSTICES GULBRANDSON, SHEEHY and MORRISON concur.