Document ID: s3://data.kl3m.ai/documents/govinfo/USCOURTS/USCOURTS-ca10-16-01414/USCOURTS-ca10-16-01414-0/pdf.json

Parties Involved:
Bruce Clyde Smith
Appellant
Dennis Leon Smith
Appellant
State of Colorado
Appellee
State of Kansas
Appellee
State of New Mexico
Appellee
State of Oklahoma
Appellee
State of Texas
Appellee
United States of America
Appellee

Document Text:

FILED

United States Court of Appeals

Tenth Circuit

February 3, 2017

Elisabeth A. Shumaker

Clerk of Court

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

TENTH CIRCUIT

DENNIS LEON SMITH; BRUCE

CLYDE SMITH,

Plaintiffs - Appellants,

v.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA;

STATE OF COLORADO; STATE OF

OKLAHOMA; STATE OF KANSAS;

STATE OF NEW MEXICO; STATE OF

TEXAS; and John and Jane Does 1-50,

Defendants - Appellees.

No. 16-1414

(D.C. No. 1:07-CV-1446-ZLW)

(D. Colo.)

ORDER AND JUDGMENT*

Before BRISCOE and McHUGH, Circuit Judges.**

*

 This order and judgment is not binding precedent, except under the doctrines of

law of the case, res judicata, and collateral estoppel. It may be cited, however, for its

persuasive value consistent with Fed. R. App. P. 32.1 and 10th Cir. R. 32.1.

** The Honorable Neil Gorsuch considered this appeal originally but did not

participate in this Order and Judgment. The practice of this court permits the remaining

two panel judges, if in agreement, to act as a quorum in resolving the appeal. See 28

U.S.C. § 46(d); see also United States v. Wiles, 106 F.3d 1516, 1516 n* (10th Cir. 1997)

(noting this court allows remaining panel judges to act as a quorum to resolve an appeal);

Murray v. National Broadcasting Co., 35 F.3d 45, 48 (2nd Cir. 1994), cert. denied, 513

U.S. 1082 (1995) (remaining two judges of original three judge panel may decide petition

for rehearing without third judge).

Appellate Case: 16-1414 Document: 01019760318 Date Filed: 02/03/2017 Page: 1 
After examining the briefs and appellate record, this panel has determined

unanimously that oral argument would not materially assist in the determination of this

appeal. See Fed. R. App. P. 34(a)(2); 10th Cir. R. 34.1(G). The case is, therefore,

submitted without oral argument. 

Dennis Leon Smith and Bruce Clyde Smith, a father and son proceeding pro se,

appeal a minute order of the district court for the District of Colorado striking three

filings. This appeal is the third in a lawsuit begun in July, 2007, when the Smiths filed a

letter and two documents titled “Private Case to Appropriate Suitor’s Superior Claim”

and “Suitor’s One [S]upreme Court Rules.” The district court dismissed the case for

uncured filing deficiencies. Over the next nine years, the Smiths twice appealed and filed

additional, incomprehensible documents. In August and September, 2016, they filed

three more documents — a “Procedurally Modified Declaratory Judgment & Mandatory

Injunction,” a “Writ of Mandamus,” and a “Writ of Prohibition” — which the district

court struck in a minute order on September 14, 2016. The Smiths timely appealed. 

Because the contested minute order is not a final appealable order, we lack

jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291. See Catlin v. United States, 324 U.S. 229, 233

(1945) (a final decision is “one which ends the litigation on the merits and leaves nothing

for the court to do but execute the judgment.”). The district court did enter a final

appealable order on August 22, 2007, dismissing the case. The Smiths never timely

appealed this order. By now, the time for appeal has long since expired. None of the

other avenues to jurisdiction applies. We therefore DISMISS this appeal for lack of

2

Appellate Case: 16-1414 Document: 01019760318 Date Filed: 02/03/2017 Page: 2 
jurisdiction. We DENY Appellants’ Motions for Leave to Proceed in Forma Pauperis.

Entered for the Court

Mary Beck Briscoe

Circuit Judge 

3

Appellate Case: 16-1414 Document: 01019760318 Date Filed: 02/03/2017 Page: 3