Court Opinion

ID: 9678826
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 06:33:28.524119+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:08.222705
License: Public Domain

Per Curiam. Renae Martin, by her attorney, Val P. Price, and Jessie Baney and James Eric Martin, by their attorney, Terry Goodwin-Jones, have filed a joint motion for rule on clerk, after their record was refused due to their notice of appeal’s noncompliance with Ark. Sup. Ct. R. 6-9(b)(2)(D) (2006). We therefore treat the instant motion as one for a belated appeal. On December 29, 2006, the circuit court entered an order terminating the appellants’ parental rights and granting the Arkansas Department of Health and Human Services the power to consent to the adoption of the minor children at issue. On January 5, 2007, Mr. Price filed a joint notice of appeal for all three appellants. However, upon tendering the record to this court’s clerk on February 26, 2007, the clerk refused to docket the record due to the fact that the appellants’ notice of appeal was not signed by each of the appellants, as required by Ark. Sup. Ct. R. 6-9(b)(2)(D). In their motion, Mr. Price and Ms. Goodwin-Jones claim that it would have been impossible for them to have prepared one notice of appeal and to have had it signed by all three appellants within the fourteen-day requirement for filing a dependency-neglect notice of appeal pursuant to Rule 6-9(b)(2). This court has clarified its treatment of motions for rule on clerk and motions for belated appeals in criminal cases in McDonald v. State, 356 Ark. 106, 146 S.W.3d 883 (2004). There we said: Where an appeal is not timely perfected, either the party or attorney filing the appeal is at fault, or there is good reason that the appeal was not timely perfected. The party or attorney filing the appeal is therefore faced with two options. First, where the party or attorney filing the appeal is at fault, fault should be admitted by affidavit filed with the motion or in the motion itself. There is no advantage in declining to admit fault where fault exists. Second, where the party or attorney believes that there is good reason the appeal was not perfected, the case for good reason can be made in the motion, and this court will decide whether good reason is present. 356 Ark. at 116, 146 S.W.3d at 891 (footnote omitted). While this court no longer requires an affidavit admitting fault before we will consider the motion, an attorney should candidly admit fault where he or she has erred and is responsible for the failure to perfect the appeal. See id. When it is plain from the motion, affidavits, and record that relief is proper under either rule based on error or good reason, the relief will be granted. See id. If there is attorney error, a copy of the opinion will be forwarded to the Committee on Professional Conduct. See id. While the instant case is not a criminal case, we have afforded indigent parents appealing from a termination of parental rights similar protections to those afforded indigent criminal defendants by applying the McDonald standard. See, e.g., Flannery v. Ark. Dep’t of Health & Human Servs., 368 Ark. 31, 242 S.W.3d 619 (2006) (granting a motion for belated appeal in a termination-of-parental-rights case).  It is plain from the appellants’ motion that there was error on the part of Mr. Price and Ms. Goodwin-Jones. A review of the notice of appeal reveals that none of the appellants signed the notice of appeal, nor did counsel for Jessie Baney and James Eric Martin, Ms. Goodwin-Jones. The language of Ark. Sup. Ct. R. 6-9 (b)(2)(D) is clear: The notice of appeal and designation of the record shall be signed by the appellant, if an adult, and appellant’s counsel. The notice shall set forth the party or parties initiating the appeal, the address of the party or parties, and specify the order from which the appeal is taken. Ark. Sup. Ct. R. 6-9(b)(2)(D). Because the appellants’ notice of appeal lacked the signature of each appellant, as well as the signature of each appellant’s counsel, it was deficient. Pursuant to McDonald v. State, supra, we grant the appellants’ motion for belated appeal and forward a copy of this opinion to the Committee on Professional Conduct. Motion granted. Brown, J., concurs.