Utah Law Developments

• Publication year: 2024
• Citation: Vol. 37 No. 4 Pg. 41
• Pages: 41

Utah Law Developments Vol. 37 No. 4 Pg. 41 Utah Bar Journal July 2024

July 2024

Appellate Highlights

Rodney R. Parker, Dani Cepernich, Robert Cummings, and Andrew Roth

EDITOR'S NOTE:

The following appellate cases of interest were recently decided by the Utah Supreme Court, Utah Court of Appeals, and United States Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. The following summaries have been prepared by the authoring attorneys listed above, who are solely responsible for their content.

Utah Court of Appeals

In re O.N. 2024 UT App 27 (Mar. 7, 2024)

In this appeal from a child welfare case, the appellant's initial appeal was dismissed for lack of jurisdiction based on appellant's failure to sign the notice of appeal, a requirement under statute and Utah R. App. P. 53(b). Appellant argued pursuant to Utah R. App. P. 23A that her appeal should be reinstated because failure to sign the notice of appeal was a "failure to take a step other than timely filing a notice of appeal," thereby providing a basis for her appeal to be reinstated. The court of appeals disagreed, holding failures "to take other steps within the scope of [Rule 23A] are administrative matters in the appeal process rather than jurisdictional defects," but "the signature requirement is a jurisdictional element of a notice of appeal in a child welfare proceeding."

Smith v. Volkswagen SouthTowne, Inc.

2024 UT App 33 (Mar. 14, 2024)

The trial court vacated a judgment and granted JNOV in favor of the defendant. On appeal, the supreme court reversed. In this second appeal, the court of appeals held that post-judgment interest should accrue from the date of the judgment that was vacated by the trial court's JNOV (i.e., during the time there was no judgment and the case was on appeal).

Utah Associated Municipal Power...