Opinion ID: 2575863
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 9

Heading: The Correct Style of the Case On Appeal

Text: ¶ 20 Claimant's summary judgment motion changed the caption of the case to reflect an amount in controversy of $1,877.00. This was done in an apparent unauthorized attempt to combine his claims against seizure in both arrests. He unilaterally accomplished the very same changes in the caption used for his petition in error. The new caption also reversed the sequence of the parties. COCA's opinion adopted the style shown in claimant's petition. We decline to follow the claimant's unauthorized alterations. ¶ 21 The terms of 20 O.S.2001 § 3002 [27] require that the style of all cases in an appellate tribunal be parallel to that borne by the case in the trial court. [28] According to the terms of Rule 1.25(b), [29] the judgment or order on appeal must bear the same style and sequence of the parties as that used in the trial court. [30] The forfeiture judgment sought here is for $1,267.00, the amount actually seized in the second arrest and shown in the caption of the nisi prius forfeiture judgment. We have accordingly corrected the style of the case and the sequence of the parties in the caption on appeal to conform to statute, the rules of this court, and extant jurisprudence. [31]