Opinion ID: 2334796
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 10

Heading: Divergent Lines of Cases

Text: The issue in this appeal has been addressed in several cases, and two divergent lines of cases have developed. In the line of cases adopted by the majority, this court has held that an appellant must cite a statutory basis for jurisdiction in a notice of appeal and is bound by that statement unless there is a formal amendment. E.g., State v. Verge, 272 Kan. 501, 521, 34 P.3d 449 (2001) (`Grounds for jurisdiction not identified in a notice of appeal may not be considered by the court.'); State v. Woodling, 264 Kan. 684, Syl. ¶ 2, 957 P.2d 398 (1998) (same); State v. Kerby, 259 Kan. 104, 106, 910 P.2d 836 (1996) (failure to cite statute giving Supreme Court jurisdictional basis in notice of appeal or to timely amend the notice of appeal deprived court of jurisdiction); State v. G.W.A., 258 Kan. 703, 705-07, 906 P.2d 657 (1995) (State must also lay a foundation for its own appeal by filing a notice of appeal which gives the appellate court jurisdiction to hear the appeal.). Yet, as the majority points out, these decisions are contrary to an earlier line of decisions. See State v. Harpool, 246 Kan. 226, 788 P.2d 281 (1990); State v. Martin, 232 Kan. 778, 658 P.2d 1024 (1983); State v. Grimes, 229 Kan. 143, 622 P.2d 143 (1981); State v. Whorton, 225 Kan. 251, 589 P.2d 610 (1979). The majority dismisses these earlier cases, but I am not willing to do so because I find the analysis in Verge, Woodling, Kerby, and G.W.A. to be faulty, as those decisions do not cite any constitutional or statutory authority for the requirement that a notice of appeal must state the statutory grounds for jurisdiction over the appeal. The lack of cited authority is not surprising because there is no such constitutional or statutory requirement, and this lack of a constitutional or statutory source undermines the requirement created by the holdings of these cases. An examination of the basis for appellate jurisdiction explains this conclusion. This court's jurisdiction derives from Article 3, § 3 of the Kansas Constitution, which states that the Kansas Supreme Court will have such appellate jurisdiction as may be provided by law. There is not a similar constitutional provision relating to the Kansas Court of Appeals, but K.S.A. 20-3001 provides that [t]he court of appeals shall have such jurisdiction over appeals in civil and criminal cases and from administrative bodies and officers of the state as may be prescribed by law. These provisions have been consistently interpreted to mean `that appellate jurisdiction is defined by statute.' [Citation omitted.] State v. Ellmaker, 289 Kan. 1132, 1148, 221 P.3d 1105 (2009), cert. denied ___ U.S. ___, 130 S.Ct. 3410, 177 L.Ed.2d 326 (2010). Under the relevant statutes, appellate jurisdiction is triggered by the timely filing of a notice of appeal. See Albright v. State, 292 Kan. 193, 197, 251 P.3d 52 (2011). K.S.A. 60-2103(b) defines the contents of a notice of appeal in both civil and criminal cases. See K.S.A. 22-3606 (the statutes and rules governing procedure on appeals to an appellate court in civil cases, apply to criminal appeals whenever there is not a specific criminal statute or court rule). K.S.A. 60-2103(b) states in part: The notice of appeal shall specify the parties taking the appeal; shall designate the judgment or part thereof appealed from, and shall name the appellate court to which the appeal is taken. There is no requirement that the statutory grounds for the appeal or the jurisdictional basis be cited. Without a constitutional or statutory basis for a requirement that a notice of appeal include a citation to the statute giving the court jurisdiction, the Verge, Woodling, Kerby, and G.W.A. courts imposed this requirement by extrapolating from the requirement in K.S.A. 60-2103(b) that [t]he notice of appeal ... shall designate the judgment or part thereof appealed from. The earliest of these cases, G.W.A., 258 Kan. at 705-07, 906 P.2d 657, supported its holding by citing Hess v. St. Francis Regional Med. Center, 254 Kan. 715, 718, 869 P.2d 598 (1994) (It is a fundamental proposition of Kansas appellate procedure that an appellate court obtains jurisdiction over the rulings identified in the notice of appeal. [Emphasis added.]), Anderson v. Scheffler, 242 Kan. 857, 860-61, 752 P.2d 667 (1988) (court lacked jurisdiction to consider summary judgment ruling not identified in notice of appeal), and State v. Grant, 19 Kan.App.2d 686, 875 P.2d 986, rev. denied 255 Kan. 1005 (1994) (finding the Court of Appeals did not have jurisdiction to address a ruling which was not included in the notice of appeal). Even though each of these decisions focused on K.S.A. 60-2103(b)'s requirement that the notice of appeal identify the judgment being appealed, the G.W.A. court extended the court's reasoning to create a nonstatutory requirementa statutory citation for the jurisdictional basis of the appeal. But the G.W.A. court did not provide a doctrinal basis for imposing a court-made requirement or for making that nonstatutory requirement jurisdictional. Under our well-established caselaw holding that appellate jurisdiction is defined by statute, the G.W.A. court did not have authority to impose a nonstatutory jurisdictional requirement. Yet, this faulty reasoning in G.W.A. is relied upon as the basis for the holdings in Verge, 272 Kan. at 521-22, 34 P.3d 449, Woodling, 264 Kan. at 687, 957 P.2d 398, and Kerby, 259 Kan. at 106, 910 P.2d 836. Because of this faulty reasoning, I reject the majority's reliance on these cases. Granted, the majority stops short of adopting the jurisdictional rationale of Verge, Woodling, Kerby, and G.W.A. Nevertheless, the holdings in these cases cannot be divorced from this faulting reasoning, and the majority's rationale depends on these cases. The majority attempts to find a substitute rationale by concluding that Supreme Court Rule 2.01 (2011 Kan. Ct. R. Annot. 9) imposes a procedural requirement that an appellant cite the statutory jurisdictional basis. As I will explain, I disagree with this conclusion because Rule 2.01 only requires a statutory citation to a statute that authorizes filing an appeal directly with the Kansas Supreme Court and because this requirement is not jurisdictional or binding.