Stacks v. Marks

127 S.W.3d 483, 354 Ark. 594, 2003 Ark. LEXIS 572
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedOctober 30, 2003
Docket03-203
StatusPublished
Cited by23 cases

This text of 127 S.W.3d 483 (Stacks v. Marks) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Stacks v. Marks, 127 S.W.3d 483, 354 Ark. 594, 2003 Ark. LEXIS 572 (Ark. 2003).

Opinion

Jim Hannah, Associate Justice.

Barbara Stacks appeals the summary judgment order entered against her in a lawsuit filed by attorney Leon Marks seeking recovery of attorney’s fees and costs. Appellee Marks successfully represented Stacks in obtaining disability and medical benefits from her former employer; however, Stacks was only willing to pay a portion of the fees and costs Marks alleged he was due under the contract of representation. Marks filed suit and brought a motion for summary judgment, which was granted. Marks also brought a posttrial motion for fees, costs, and interest in the present litigation, which was also granted.

Stacks asserts that the trial court erred because there were material questions of fact on whether the contract with Marks was illegal and unenforceable under federal ERISA statutes and Arkansas statutes. She also alleged in her reply brief that the award of fees, costs and interest was in error. However, we do not reach Stacks’s issues because of her failure to file a timely notice of appeal with regard to the summary judgment and failure to argue the trial court’s decision on the posttrial motion for fees and costs in her original brief. We note that Marks filed a motion to dismiss the appeal from the summary judgment alleging an untimely notice of appeal. The motion to dismiss the appeal from the summary judgment is granted, and the trial court’s decision on the posttrial motion for fees and costs is affirmed.

Appealed Orders and Judgment

One order and two judgments are at issue in this case. Summary judgment was entered by an August 23, 2002, order, which was followed by the filing of a September 11, 2002, judgment setting the amount owed at $31,713.23. Then, on October 31, 2002, the trial court signed a judgment granting a Motion for Postjudgment Award of Fees, Costs, and Interest, which was entered on November 1, 2002.

Marks filed a motion to dismiss in this court alleging that Stacks failed to file a timely notice of appeal on the summary judgment. Stacks filed a notice of appeal on November 27, 2002, which stated it was an appeal from a final October 31, 2002, order. As already noted, the October 31, 2002, order was dated October 31, 2002, but was filed November 1, 2002. Although referred to as an order by Stacks, the appealed from order is entitled judgment and provides:

Pursuant to the Order entered granting Plaintiffs Motion for Post-Judgment Award of Fees, Costs and Interest. IT IS CONSIDERED ORDERED AND ADJUDGED that judgment in the amount of$19,653.16be entered for Plaintiff and against Defendant Barbara Stacks.

Thus, the November 1, 2002, judgment awarded fees, costs and interest, but makes no mention of the summary judgment.

Stacks asserts that the November 1, 2002, judgment on the attorney’s fees, costs, and interest is a final order which brings up for appeal any prior order in the case. It is true that an appeal from any final order also brings up for review any intermediate order involving the merits and necessarily affecting the judgment. Ark. R. App. P. — Civ. 2(b) (2003) ; see also Ford v. Ford, 347 Ark. 485, 65 S.W.3d 432 (2002). However, a summary judgment which concludes the rights of the parties is a final appealable order. Harold Ives Trucking, Co. v. Pro Transportation, Inc., 341 Ark. 735, 19 S.W.3d 600 (2000). Therefore, summary judgment which concludes the rights of the parties is not an intermediate order under Ark. R. App. P. — Civ. 2(b). A motion for attorney’s fees is collateral to a trial court’s judgment on the substantive issues, and, therefore, will not bring up the earlier granted summary judgment for purposes of appeal. Harold Ives, supra.

Nor is there any relief for Stacks in Arkansas Rule of Appellate Procedure- — Civil 4(b) (2002), which provides an extension for time in filing a notice of appeal “in certain circumstances.” Home Mut. Fire Ins. Co. v. Hampton, 336 Ark. 522, 524, 986 S.W.2d 93 (1999). In order to extend the time for filing a notice of appeal, “one or more of the enumerated post-trial motions must be timely filed. . . .” Id. Rule 4(b)(1) provides in pertinent part:

Upon timely filing in the circuit court of a motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict under Rule 50(b) of the Arkansas Rules of Civil Procedure, a motion to amend the court’s findings of fact or to make additional findings under Rule 52(b), a motion for a new trial under Rule 59(a), or any other motion to vacate, alter, or amend the judgment made no later than 10 days after entry of judgment, the time for filing a notice of appeal shall be extended for all parties.

Ark. R. App. P.— Civ. 4(b)(1) (2002). A motion for attorney’s fees is not a motion under Rules 50(b), 52(b), or 59(a), of the Arkansas Rules of Civil Procedure, nor is it a motion to vacate or otherwise alter or amend the judgment. Thus, the motion for attorney’s fees did not extend the time within which Stacks was required to file the notice of appeal, and this court is without jurisdiction to hear an appeal from the September 11, 2002, order. Weems v. Garth, 338 Ark. 437, 993 S.W.2d 926 (1999).

Stacks’s notice of appeal is untimely. Arkansas Rule of Appellate Procedure 3(e) (2002), requires that, “[a] notice of appeal. . . shall designate the judgment, decree, order or part thereof appealed from. ...” The order appealed from by the terms of the notice was the November 1, 2002, judgment. A notice of appeal must be filed within thirty days. Ark. R. App. P. — Civ. 4(a) (2002). Timely filing of a notice of appeal is jurisdictional, and we are required to raise the issue of subject-matter jurisdiction on our own motion. Weems, supra; see also Williams v. Hudson, 320 Ark. 635, 898 S.W.2d 465 (1995). Thus, because the summary judgment was a final appealable order, then the notice of appeal filed on November 1, 2002, was late whether calculated from the August 23, 2002, order, or the September 11, 2002, judgment. This court lacks jurisdiction to hear the appeal on the summary judgment.

Attorney’s Fees, Costs, and Interest

The notice of appeal was timely to raise the issues under the November 1, 2002, order. The November 1, 2002, order granted an award of attorney’s fees and costs. Thus, issues of alleged error in deciding the motion for fees and costs could be raised by Stacks on appeal. However, the points on appeal stated by Stacks in her opening brief are:

1. The trial court erred in granting summary judgment to Appellee Leon Marks because there were material questions of fact to be resolved, with regard to both the complaint and the counterclaim.
2. Appellee’s contingent fee agreement is illegal and unenforceable because it violates federal ERISA law and Arkansas statutes, therefore the ruling of the trial court granting summary judgment should be reversed and this case should be remanded for trial.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Beth's Bail Bonds, Inc. v. State of Arkansas
2015 Ark. App. 660 (Court of Appeals of Arkansas, 2015)
Bruchhagen v. Acord
2015 Ark. App. 286 (Court of Appeals of Arkansas, 2015)
Tubbs v. Hobbs
2015 Ark. 99 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 2015)
In the Matter of the Guardianship of Mackley v. Cir. Ct. of Crawford Cnty
2015 Ark. App. 128 (Court of Appeals of Arkansas, 2015)
Smith v. Freeman
2014 Ark. App. 569 (Court of Appeals of Arkansas, 2014)
Stratton v. Stratton
2014 Ark. App. 292 (Court of Appeals of Arkansas, 2014)
Centennial Bank v. Tribuilt Construction Group, LLC
2011 Ark. 245 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 2011)
Ellis v. Arkansas State Highway Commission
2010 Ark. 196 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 2010)
Hausman v. Throesch
289 S.W.3d 493 (Court of Appeals of Arkansas, 2008)
Dalton v. FIRST STATE BANK OF WARREN
288 S.W.3d 589 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 2008)
Francis v. Protective Life Insurance
249 S.W.3d 828 (Court of Appeals of Arkansas, 2007)
Barton v. State
237 S.W.3d 512 (Court of Appeals of Arkansas, 2006)
Seay v. C.A.R. Transportation Brokerage Co.
237 S.W.3d 48 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 2006)
State v. Reid
894 A.2d 963 (Supreme Court of Connecticut, 2006)
Wandrey v. Etchison
210 S.W.3d 892 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 2005)
Helena Regional Medical Center v. Wilson
207 S.W.3d 541 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 2005)
Harris v. City of Fort Smith
197 S.W.3d 461 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 2004)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
127 S.W.3d 483, 354 Ark. 594, 2003 Ark. LEXIS 572, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/stacks-v-marks-ark-2003.