Court Opinion

ID: 9845092
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 03:15:07.071404+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:15:51.570553
License: Public Domain

LEVINE, Justice,
concurring.
This case offers a practical solution to the dilemma presented by the need for lawyers to know when the time for appeal begins to run, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, the need for the court to apply some closure to a case where the lawyers fail to timely serve notice of entry of judgment or order. Customarily, lawyers have relied on service of notice of entry as the trigger for the time to appeal. This case establishes that that customary reliance is not foolproof. When no entry of judgment or order is served, or when it is served after appellant’s actual knowledge of entry of judgment or order, appellant’s actual knowledge of entry of judgment or order will trigger the time to appeal. Proof of appellants’ “actual knowledge” of entry of judgment or order “requires action evident on the record on the part of the appealing party.”
I am satisfied that this resolution is reasonable and necessary and I therefore abandon my dissent in Morley v. Morley, 440 N.W.2d 493 (N.D.1989) and concur in the majority opinion. To paraphrase Justice Jackson: Things do not appear to me now as they did then. See McGrath v. Kristensen, 340 U.S. 162, 71 S.Ct. 224, 95 L.Ed. 173 (1950)(Jaekson, J., concurring).