Court Opinion

ID: 9467158
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 01:40:14.089179+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:40:11.827506
License: Public Domain

WILLIAM E. DOYLE, Circuit Judge,
concurs in the opinion but in view of the remand for trial would not affirm the partial summary judgment on the tying claim.
ON REHEARING
In its petition for rehearing, Carpenter Paper Company called to our attention documents that were not before the Court when we determined that Perington had adequately raised in its appeal the propriety of the Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6) order dismissing Carpenter from the suit. Carpenter contends that Perington did not intend to appeal the Rule 12(b)(6) dismissal when the notice of appeal was filed. We granted rehearing, giving Perington Wholesale, Inc. an opportunity to answer Carpenter’s arguments.
Carpenter contends the following evidence requires us to conclude Perington did not intend to appeal the dismissal of Carpenter from the lawsuit: it was not served with the notice of appeal, as inferentially supported by a letter from the clerk of the district court sent to counsel of the other parties concerning designation of the record on appeal; the notice of appeal listed only Burger King and Davmor in the caption; and the notice of appeal specified only appeal from “the final Order of Dismissal entered on the 23rd day of August, 1977.” We disagree.
Our jurisdiction is limited to the judgment, order, or part thereof designated in the notice of appeal, Scaramucci v. Dresser Industries, Inc., 427 F.2d 1309, 1318 (10th Cir. 1970), but the notice of appeal is not to be given a wooden interpretation. See Fo-man v. Davis, 371 U.S. 178, 83 S.Ct. 227, 9 L.Ed.2d 222 (1962); Herron v. Rozelle, 480 F.2d 282, 285 (10th Cir. 1973). The question is whether the notice of appeal and subsequent appellate proceedings support the inference that at the time of filing the notice, appellant sought to appeal the unspecified order. Foman v. Davis, 371 U.S. 178, 83 S.Ct. 227, 9 L.Ed.2d 222 (1962); Elfman Motors, Inc. v. Chrysler Corp., 567 F.2d 1252, 1254 (3d Cir. 1977). This is true even if the specified order appears unambiguous. Vigil v. United States, 430 F.2d 1357 (10th Cir. 1970).
To perfect an appeal, a party must file a notice of appeal that “shall specify the party or parties taking the appeal; shall designate the judgment, order or part thereof appealed from; and shall name the court to which the appeal is taken.” Fed.R.App.P. 3(c). Nothing in the rules requires a listing of the appellees; thus', it is not fatal that Carpenter did not appear in the caption of the notice of appeal.
The notice of appeal must be filed with the clerk of the district court within thirty days of the date of entry of the order of judgment appealed from. 28 U.S.C. § 2107; Fed.R.App.P. 4(a). The duty to serve the notice falls on the clerk of the district court, who failed to serve Carpenter. But this does not conclude the issue because Fed.R. App.P. 3(d) provides that the clerk’s failure to serve the notice does not affect the validity of the appeal.
The designation in the notice of appeal of the order appealed from, quoted above, is at best ambiguous. The docketing statement, filed on October 26,1977, pursuant to Tenth Cir.R. 8, did name Carpenter as an appellee and specified issues it would raise against Carpenter. This document and all motions and briefs thereafter filed in the appeal appear to have been mailed to Carpenter. The exhibits to Carpenter’s petition for rehearing indicate that on February 9,1978, it notified the Clerk of this Court of its objection to being treated as an appellee.
Appraising the above-stated objective facts, we see three possible inferences: that Perington always intended to appeal the *1380dismissal of Carpenter; that at the time Perington filed the notice of appeal it did not think of the order concerning Carpenter, but if it had, it would have intended to appeal that order; or that Perington did not initially intend to appeal the order, but changed its mind before filing the docketing statement. We have no witching rod to divine Perington’s subjective intent; and in a case like this we hold that the ambiguity should be resolved in favor of permitting the appeal to go forward. There is here no deception and prejudice to Carpenter. Since it did not receive the notice of appeal, Carpenter could not have been misled by the caption. The documents mailed to Carpenter fairly apprised it of the issues to be asserted against it with ample opportunity to prepare for the appeal. Carpenter could have filed with this Court a motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction pursuant to Tenth Cir.R. 9 once it knew of Perington’s intent to go forward against it, but did not.
The Clerk of this Court, in response to Carpenter’s letter of February 9, 1978, instructed Carpenter’s counsel to “do whatever the circumstances may warrant,” i. e., to ignore the appeal at its peril. Carpenter, however, did not participate in the briefing and arguments on appeal, apparently based upon its view, which we reject, that no appeal was taken of the order dismissing it from the suit. Although Carpenter forfeited its right to be heard on the merits, this Court now chooses to grant Carpenter twenty days from the date of entry of this opinion to file a brief on the merits of its case, if it has contentions to make on the rulings decided against it. See Fed.R. App.P. 3(a). The mandate against Carpenter will be withheld until the Court has considered any brief so filed.
There has also been filed herein a petition for rehearing by Perington with respect to those issues decided in our original opinion against it. That motion is denied by unanimous vote of the panel.