Court Opinion

ID: 9601124
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 01:36:55.682631+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:51:07.948881
License: Public Domain

CONCURRING OPINION BY
CIRCUIT JUDGE JAMIESON.
Concurring in the opinion of the court, I wish to state additional reasons.
We should think of notice of appeal as a sign, not a rite. Its function is to communicate, not to perform a ceremony. If during the time for appeal an appellant files in the case in the circuit court a writing which shows that he is appealing from the judgment, this should be enough notice. If the writing is unconventional, he runs the risk that it may be insufficiently clear to give the message. The test of what is filed during the time for appeal should not be its form but what it says in its context. What was filed in the circuit court in this case during the time for appeal showed, at least in the context of the earlier filed papers, that appellants were appealing from the judgment. Therefore, there was notice of appeal, filed during the time for appeal.