Opinion ID: 782407
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Confusion in the Record

Text: 60 Essef argues that its neglect may also be excused because it resulted from confusion in the record and dockets regarding when and whether the Second Supplemental Judgment was appealable, an issue not explicitly decided by the district court. We agree with Essef that the proceedings in this case may be characterized as at times confused: The district court's first supplemental judgments, issued in November 2001, were not mailed to some parties. All of the cases were then reopened by the court's December 7 order. And the second Rule 54(b) order was not properly entered into the bellwether docket. 61 But none of this was the reason for Essef's failure to file its notice of appeal on time. Essef did not assert that it was misled or confused about whether the Second Supplemental Judgment was final and the time to appeal had therefore begun to run until — during the pendency of its Rule 4(a)(5) motion for an extension — Essef's counsel, Weaver, checked the Silivanch docket and learned that the January 25 Rule 54(b) order had not been entered there. Essef's original Rule 4(a)(5) motion justified the tardy filing by arguing only that Essef had never received written notice of the entry of judgment from which [it] appealed, Essef Mot. to Reopen the Time in Which to File a Notice of Appeal dated Apr. 3, 2002, at 1 — an assertion that Essef later abandoned — and that it was misled by Celebrity's lawyer, Hazen, during the telephone conference. 62 And Essef did indeed receive clear notice that final judgment had been entered. 12 It could not have been confused about that. Weaver spoke to the Silivanches' counsel about the appeal, and noted March 4 on his calendar as the Rule 4(a) deadline, after the February 22 telephone conference. Neither discussing the impending appeal with an adversary nor calendaring the Rule 4(a) deadline seems to us to be consistent with doubt as to whether the time to appeal had begun to run. 63 While there may be circumstances in which the absence of a docket entry and similar factors create legitimate and excusable confusion, they are not present here. The district court implicitly so held when it identified a single cause for the late filing: the date mentioned by counsel during the scheduling conference, not Essef's confusion by the dockets and record. That finding was not clearly erroneous.