Opinion ID: 596204
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: jurisdiction

Text: 7 We first must address whether we have jurisdiction to hear the appeal. This court requested additional briefing by the parties on the issue of jurisdiction in light of a potential problem with the notice of appeal filed by the plaintiffs. The district court dismissed plaintiffs' claims for relief in a final judgment entered on August 9, 1991. Plaintiffs filed a notice of appeal on September 26, 1991. The notice was defective, however, in that it simply listed Ayala, et al. as the appellants instead of identifying each party seeking to appeal. Normally, the parties taking an appeal must be specifically identified in the notice of appeal in order to confer appellate jurisdiction on this court. Fed.R.App. 3(c); Torres v. Oakland Scavenger Co., 487 U.S. 312, 108 S.Ct. 2405, 101 L.Ed.2d 285 (1988). This first appeal was designated as Tenth Circuit No. 91-1340. 8 Upon being notified that there was a potential problem with the notice of appeal, the plaintiffs obtained an extension of time from the district court and filed a second notice of appeal naming each of the appellants individually. 1 This second appeal was designated as Tenth Circuit No. 91-1390. The defendant United States has now filed a motion to dismiss case No. 91-1390. 2 9 We find it unnecessary to address the issues raised by the defendant's motion to dismiss No. 91-1390 because we find that we have jurisdiction to hear the appeal of each plaintiff in 91-1340. It is true that Rule 3(c) of the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure requires that the notice of appeal specify the party or parties taking the appeal and that plaintiffs did not include that information in their first notice of appeal. But when papers are technically at variance with the letter of [Rule 3], a court may nonetheless find that the litigant has complied with the rule if the litigant's action is the functional equivalent of what the rule requires. Torres, 487 U.S. at 316-17, 108 S.Ct. at 2408-09. We have recognized that a docketing statement or other documents filed within the period allotted for filing a notice of appeal may cure defects in the notice of appeal. See Hubbert v. City of Moore, Okla., 923 F.2d 769, 772 (10th Cir.1991). In the instant case, the plaintiffs filed their docketing statement on October 8, 1991. This was within the sixty-day time period they had to file a notice of appeal. Fed.R.App.P. 4(a). The docketing statement identified the parties taking the appeal as Plaintiffs and an attachment to the docketing statement specifically listed each of the plaintiffs by name. We find that the plaintiffs' documents, although technically at variance with Rule 3(c), are the functional equivalent of a proper notice of appeal. Cf. Smith v. Barry, 502 U.S. ----, 112 S.Ct. 678, 116 L.Ed.2d 678 (1992) (Courts will liberally construe the requirements of Rule 3; informal brief found to be the functional equivalent of a notice of appeal.) The documents, taken together, give fair notice of the specific individuals seeking to appeal and are sufficient to confer jurisdiction on us to hear the appeal. Cf. Hubbert, 923 F.2d at 772. 10