Court Opinion

ID: 9661504
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 22:40:28.596968+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:14:29.272456
License: Public Domain

Larry D. Vaught, Judge, concurring. Although I agree with the reasoning and results contained in the majority opinion, I write separately to bring attention to an often overlooked rule of appellate procedure. Rule 3(f) of the Arkansas Rules of Appellate Procedure - Civil requires that “[a] copy of the notice of appeal or cross-appeal shall be served by counsel for appellant or cross-appellant upon counsel for all other parties by any form of mail which requires a signed receipt” (Emphasis added.) In this case, the litigants — both the appellant and cross-appellant — failed to serve their notices by signed-receipt mail as required by our rules. While their non-compliance does not impact the validity of the appeal, it does complicate our determination of jurisdiction to hear the cross-appeal. Here, had the notice of appeal been served by signed-receipt mail, we would know definitively when appellee received her copy of the notice. We would then apply Rule 4(a) of the Rules of Appellate Procedure - Civil and require that the notice of cross-appeal be filed within “ten (10) days after receipt of the notice of appeal.” Without compliance with Rule 3(f), it is extremely difficult to engage in a jurisdictional determination that is dependent on the “receipt” of a notice. As such, we encourage the bar to take note of this rule, and we use the complications surrounding the cross-appeal in this case as evidence of the rule’s utility.