Van Buren Title Co. v. Bass
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SUPREME COURT OF ARKANSAS
No.
09-943
VAN BUREN COUNTY TITLE CO.,
APPELLANT,
Opinion Delivered September 10, 2009
MOTION FOR RULE ON CLERK
VS.
ESTER BASS, COUNTY AND
CIRCUIT CLERK, VAN BUREN
COUNTY, ARKANSAS, AND AMBER
MADDOX, DEPUTY CLERK;
AUTOMATED COUNTY TITLE
SERVICES, INC.; JAMES
KIRKENDOLL, JUSTICE OF THE
PEACE AND DIRECTOR OF VAN
BUREN COUNTY CAREER
CENTER, DIRECTOR OF VAN
BUREN COUNTY ANNEX,
APPELLEES,
GRANTED.
PER CURIAM
Appellant Van Buren Title Co., by and through its attorney, Jerry Patterson, seeks a
motion for rule on clerk. The Van Buren County Circuit Court held a hearing in this case
on November 26, 2008, and rendered a ruling on May 29, 2009. In its notice of appeal, Van
Buren Title Co. mistakenly stated that it was appealing from the “order filed and entered in
this case on the 26th day of November, 2008,” the date of the hearing. However, while the
May 29 order referenced the November 26 hearing, it is clear that the only appealable order
entered in this case was the May 29, 2009 order.
09-943
The notice of appeal, filed on June 8, 2009, was clearly timely with regard to the May
29, 2009 order appealed from, and the record was timely lodged within ninety days of the
June 8 notice of appeal. Nonetheless, this court’s clerk’s office refused to accept the record
due to the apparent untimeliness of the June 8, 2009 notice of appeal that purported to appeal
from a November 26, 2008 order.
We grant the motion for rule on clerk. It is clear from the record that there is no
other judgment from which an appeal could have been taken. Although the circuit court
rendered a ruling from the bench at the conclusion of the November 26, 2008, hearing, Van
Buren County Title Co. could not have taken an appeal from this oral ruling. See Ark. R.
Civ. P. 58 (a judgment or decree is effectively only when so set forth and entered as provided
in Administrative Order No. 2). Supreme Court Administrative Order No. 2(b)(2) provides
as follows:
The clerk shall denote the date and time that a judgment, decree or order is
filed by stamping or otherwise marking it with the date and time and the word
“filed.” A judgment, decree or order is entered when so stamped or marked by
the clerk, irrespective of when it is recorded in the judgment record book.
See also Farm Bur. Mut. Ins. Co. of Arkansas v. Sudrick, 49 Ark. App. 84, 896 S.W.2d 452
(1995) (where notice of appeal recited that appeal was taken from an order entered on August
4, 1993, but no such order existed, and it was apparent that appellant intended to appeal from
a later judgment, the failure to designate the later judgment was not fatal to the appeal).
Accordingly, because there is only one appealable order in the record, and the notice
of appeal was timely relative to that order (and would have been correct but for the
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scrivener’s error), we grant the appellant’s motion for rule on clerk and direct our clerk’s
office to accept the record in this appeal.
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09-943
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