Opinion ID: 2632559
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: the district court's equitable discretion

Text: ¶ 15 Given our ruling on the jurisdictional issue and the inapplicability of rule 4-803, we conclude that the district court did have equitable discretion to disregard the rule insofar as it may have been interpreted to require dismissal of Castle's appeal. Of course, even under our ruling that rule 4-803 is inapplicable, there is no question that Castle was indeed required to pay the $10 fee. See Utah Code Ann. § 78-6-14(4) (2002). Because her failure to pay the fee at the time of filing the notice of appeal was not of jurisdictional magnitude, however, the district court had discretion to proceed with the trial de novo rather than granting Panos's motion to dismiss. As we stated in Dipoma, even where fee requirements are not jurisdictional, appealing parties are required to pay filing fees within a reasonable time, 2001 UT 61 at ¶ 19, 29 P.3d 1225, which in many cases will be limited to the time of filing the notice of appeal. Under the circumstances here, the district court did not abuse its discretion in declining to dismiss Castle's appeal.