Court Opinion

ID: 9778269
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 20:57:37.285519+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:33:06.280222
License: Public Domain

Melvin Mayfield, Judge, dissenting. I dissent from the opinion of the majority in this case. The opinion refuses to consider the merits of the case because it holds that the trial court did not have jurisdiction to grant appellee’s motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict. The reasoning is that the motion was granted forty-five days after it was filed, but it had been denied by operation of law at the end of thirty days after it was filed. The problem I have is that appellant’s notice of appeal, as abstracted by the appellant, states that appellant is appealing from a judgment entered August 4, 1993, and the abstract states that the notice of appeal was filed on September 27, 1993. Obviously, the notice of appeal was filed more than thirty days after August 4, 1993, and our Appellate Rule 4(a) requires a notice of appeal to be filed within thirty days from the entry of the judgment from which the appeal is taken. According to the majority opinion, the trial court granted the appellee’s JNOV motion by entering judgment for her against the appellant on September 23, 1993. However, appellant’s abstract does not show that a notice of appeal was ever filed from that judgment. It is well settled that the “record on appeal is confined to the abstract,” Wynn v. State, 316 Ark. 414, 417, 871 S.W.2d 593, 594 (1994); and our review is upon the record as abstracted, Zini v. Perciful, 289 Ark. 343, 711 S.W.2d 477 (1986). Moreover, it is not our practice to go to the record to reverse the trial court. It may be that the date stated in the notice of appeal is incorrect and that my view is highly technical; however, I think the majority opinion is based on a point that is also highly technical. Actually, I would like to decide the case on its merits — and that surely would be more satisfactory to the parties. But the only notice of appeal abstracted was filed more than thirty days after August 4, 1993, and the abstract does not show any notice of appeal from the judgment entered September 23, 1993. Therefore, I think the appellant’s appeal must be dismissed. Cooper, J., joins in this dissent.