holding that a document intended to serve as an appellate brief may constitute the “functional equivalent” of a notice of appeal sufficient to satisfy the requirements of Fed. R.App. P. 3, because the purpose of Rule 3's requirements "is to ensure that the filing provides sufficient notice to other parties and the courts”
How later courts described this case
- holding that a document intended to serve as an appellate brief may constitute the “functional equivalent” of a notice of appeal sufficient to satisfy the requirements of Fed. R.App. P. 3, because the purpose of Rule 3's requirements "is to ensure that the filing provides sufficient notice to other parties and the courts”
- stating that "the notice afforded by a document ... determines the document's sufficiency as a notice of appeal" and stating that the rules do not preclude an appellate court from treating a filing, styled as a brief, as a notice of appeal if the filing is timely and conveys the information required
- holding that a court “may not waive the jurisdictional requirements of Rules 3 and 4, even for ‘good cause shown’ under Rule 2, if it finds that they have not been met” and noting that any “harshness” in the application of these Rules “is imposed by the legislature and not by the judicial process”
- explaining that Rule 62.1 adopts the "practice most courts follow when a party makes a Rule 60(b) motion to vacate a judgment that is pending on appeal” that "after an appeal has been docketed and while it remains pending, the district court cannot grant a Rule 60(b) motion without a remand’’
Written by the judges who cited it.
The opinion
Justice Scalia,
concurring in the judgment.
I agree with the judgment because Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 3(c) provides that “[a]n appeal shall not be dismissed for informality of form or title of the notice of appeal.” I do not rely on the theory that petitioner’s brief was the “ ‘functional equivalent’ ” of a notice of appeal under a “liberal construction” of Rule 3. Ante, at 248. “[W]e should seek to interpret the rules neither liberally nor stingily, but only, as best we can, according to their apparent intent.” Torres v. Oakland Scavenger Co., 487 U. S. 312, 319 (1988) (Scalia, J., concurring in judgment).