Opinion ID: 769609
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Failure to Designate Orders Appealed From

Text: 11 Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure 3(c)(1)(B) provides that a notice of appeal must designate the judgment, order or part thereof being appealed from. Fed. R. App. P. 3(c)(1)(B). Trotter filed her notice of appeal on April 13, 1999, stating that she was appealing from the dismissal entered herein by the Court. Her notice did not specifically reference the district court's January 27 or March 31 orders. Appellees maintain that Trotter's notice of appeal was ineffective under Rule 3(c)(1)(B). We reject appellees' argument. 12 In Denver & Rio Grande Western R.R. v. Union Pacific R.R., 119 F.3d 847 (10th Cir. 1997), we held that [w]hen a notice of appeal fails to designate the order from which the appeal is taken, our jurisdiction will not be defeated if other papers filed within the time period for filing the notice of appeal provide the 'functional equivalent' of what Rule 3 requires. Id. at 849 (citation omitted). More specifically, we held that a docketing statement filed within the time limits for filing a notice of appeal which clearly describe[s] the issues on appeal serves as the functional equivalent of a properly drafted Rule 3 notice of appeal. See id. In this case, Trotter's docketing statement clearly set forth the issues on appeal, and, thus, appellees had notice of the subject of the appeal, had copies of the pertinent orders, and suffered no prejudice from Trotter's alleged failure to specifically reference the orders from which she appealed.