Opinion ID: 2640630
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: jurisdiction

Text: [¶ 5] Earlier in the instant appellate proceeding, the bank moved to dismiss several issues identified by appellants in their notice of appeal, claiming that the notice of appeal was untimely as to those issues. This Court denied the motion without discussion. The bank renews its jurisdictional argument in its appellate brief. Questions of subject matter jurisdiction are matters of law which this Court reviews de novo. Messer v. State, 2004 WY 98, ¶ 8, 96 P.3d 12, 15 (Wyo.2004). [¶ 6] Two judgments were entered below. A Judgment and Decree of Foreclosure was filed on June 8, 2004. Within the Judgment, the district court ordered that the monetary Judgment awarded herein against [appellants] will be augmented by the sum of costs and attorney's fees to be allowed by this Court pursuant to Wyo.R.Civ.P. 54(b) in a Supplemental Judgment. [2] On September 13, 2004, a Supplemental Judgment was filed awarding contractually based costs and attorney's fees to the bank. The Supplemental Judgment again referenced W.R.C.P. 54(b). The appellants filed their notice of appeal within the time allowed after the entry of the Supplemental Judgment. [¶ 7] The bank argues that the June Judgment and Decree of Foreclosure is a final order from which the appellants did not timely appeal. Therefore, according to the bank, issues regarding the foreclosure proceeding and the judgment of foreclosure are not properly before this Court. Instead, the only issues properly before this Court are issues concerning the award of contractual attorney's fees and costs, the only subject addressed in the Supplemental Order. [¶ 8] We disagree. When the district court referenced Rule 54(b), it declared that the Judgment and Decree of Foreclosure was not a final order, and thus not appealable. [3] It was not until the Supplemental Judgment was entered that all the claims for relief presented to the district court were finally adjudicated, making the Supplemental Judgment the final appealable order. [¶ 9] In arguing that the June Judgment and Decree of Foreclosure is a final order, the bank consistently treats the reference by the district court to W.R.C.P. 54(b) as a mistake and relies instead upon its preferred reading that the district court really meant W.R.C.P. 54(d)(2). We find no basis for this rewriting of the district court's judgments. The notice of appeal was timely filed.