Opinion ID: 1320396
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: the issue of whether an issue is properly before this court

Text: After the district court judge voided his judgment with respect to the Fords for the reasons already explained, plaintiff-appellant appealed, arguing that the requirements for serving the appellees had, indeed, been met. Appellees naturally responded by arguing that the district judge was correct in determining that all of the service requirements were not met. In addition, appellees urged that the district judge had been wrong in determining that a Wyoming court could exercise in personam jurisdiction over the appellees. Appellant responded with a reply brief urging that the appellees could not raise this latter issue because they had not filed a separate appeal. We disagree. We recently discussed a similar issue in some detail and concluded: ... [A] non-appealing party may not attack the ultimate effect of the judgment below but may support it by any matter appearing in the record. The rejection of a contention, argument or theory in support of a claim does not reject the final upholding of the claim itself. A party need not cross-appeal in order to support a claim allowed in the district court by urging the validity of a contention, argument or theory specifically rejected by the trial judge as a basis for its allowance of the claim... . Wyoming State Treasurer v. City of Casper, Wyo., 551 P.2d 687, 693 (1976). The ultimate effect of the district court's disposition of the case was to leave the appellees as they were. Appellees-defendants, it may be presumed, were delighted with this outcome. They need not cross-appeal to advance an alternative theory, offered to and rejected by the district court, which would support the district court's ultimate disposition of the case. The order of the district court voiding its judgment with respect to the Fords is reversed. The case is remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.