Court Opinion

ID: 9717719
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 07:09:08.902751+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:54.827819
License: Public Domain

VANDE WALLE, Justice,
dissenting.
I do not agree that we can conclude the memorandum decision is intended to be a final order, thereby applying the statement in State v. Gelvin, 318 N.W.2d 302, 304, n. 1 (N.D.1982), that “when the memorandum opinion contains an order which was intended to be a final order and the order is one from which an appeal may be taken pursuant to statute, we will treat the appeal as an appeal from the order.”
Here, the concluding paragraph of the memorandum opinion from which the instant appeal is taken states, in part:
“Based on the foregoing, it is hereby ordered that the Information charging the defendant with the Class C felony of escape is hereby dismissed. Counsel for the defendant may prepare the appropriate order of dismissal.” [Emphasis supplied.]
Furthermore, as the majority opinion notes, an order of dismissal, from which no appeal was taken, was subsequently entered. The facts of this case thus are more akin to those in State v. Tinsley, 325 N.W.2d 177 (N.D.1982), in which a memorandum opinion containing the ruling of the trial court was issued on February 10, 1982, followed by an order dismissing Tinsley’s application for post-conviction relief on February 26, 1982. We held that under those circumstances the memorandum opinion did not contain an appealable final order and we dismissed the appeal.
Here, I can only conclude from the quoted wording of the memorandum opinion that the memorandum opinion was not intended to be a final order and I would dismiss the appeal because it is from a memorandum opinion which is not appeala-ble.