Opinion ID: 557801
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Failure to Designate Underlying Order

Text: 11 Obviously, counsel for appellant did not pay careful attention to the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure and the rules of this court in several important respects. Rule 3(c) of the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure designates the content of the Notice of Appeal, which shall specify the party or parties taking the appeal; shall designate the judgment, order or part thereof appealed from; and shall name the court to which the appeal is taken.... An appeal shall not be dismissed for informality of form or title of the notice of appeal. Compliance with Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure 3 and 4, providing for the timely and proper filing of a notice of appeal, has been interpreted to be mandatory and jurisdictional. United States v. Robinson, 361 U.S. 220, 224, 80 S.Ct. 282, 285, 4 L.Ed.2d 259 (1960). Here, Matute failed in his notice of appeal to designate that the order appealed from included the original order of dismissal. He merely appealed from the order denying the motion for reconsideration. Therefore, Procoast argues that this failure does not raise on appeal the underlying order of dismissal. 12 This court has in the past liberally construed the content of notices of appeal and generally it has not interpreted them to bar an appeal unless the notice of appeal is so inadequate as to prejudice the opposing party. Thus, the court has held it proper to exercise appellate jurisdiction over orders not specified in the notice of appeal if there is a connection between the specified and unspecified order, the intention to appeal the unspecified order is apparent and the opposing party is not prejudiced and has a full opportunity to brief the issue. Williams v. Guzzardi, 875 F.2d 46, 49 (3rd Cir.1989). See also Drinkwater v. Union Carbide Corp., 904 F.2d 853, 858 (3rd Cir.1990). 13 Thus, in Williams, this court held that the appellants' notice of appeal which specified only the trial court's post-judgment order dismissing their motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict did not preclude an appellate court from considering the original order entering judgment against appellants. This holding is in accord with the United States Supreme Court which, in one case, reversed an appellate court for dismissing an appeal because the notice of appeal specified the denial of a motion for a new trial but did not specify the underlying judgment. See State Farm Mutual Auto. Ins. Co. v. Palmer, 225 F.2d 876 (9th Cir.1955), rev'd 350 U.S. 944, 76 S.Ct. 321, 100 L.Ed. 823 (1956). See also Wheatley v. Beetar, 637 F.2d 863 (2nd Cir.1980) (filing of notice of appeal from an order denying a new trial rather than from the underlying judgment was harmless error). Moore's Federal Practice states: 14 The rule is now well settled that a mistake in designating the judgment, or in designating the part appealed from if only a part is designated, should not result in loss of the appeal as long as the intent to appeal from a specific judgment can be fairly inferred from the notice and the appellee is not misled by the mistake. 15 9 Moore's Federal Practice p 203.18 at 3-76-77 (citations omitted). 16 Therefore, in the absence of a showing of prejudice by Procoast, it appears that Matute's mistake in failing to state specifically that he was appealing from the underlying dismissal should be viewed as harmless error and not a jurisdictional bar to his appeal. Indeed, Matute did mention the Order of Dismissal in his notice of appeal; the intent to appeal from that Order, thus, can be inferred fairly from the notice. 17