Background
Robert Michael Ardis, proceeding pro se, sought to appeal a district court order that dismissed his amended complaint brought under Section nineteen hundred and eighty-three of Title forty-two of the United States Code without prejudice. The district court entered the dismissal order on October twenty-four, two thousand and twenty-three.
The court’s reasoning
The court held that it lacked jurisdiction because the notice of appeal was not timely filed. Under Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure four, parties have thirty days after the entry of a final judgment to file a notice of appeal. The appeal period expired on November twenty-seven, two thousand and twenty-three. Ardis filed his notice of appeal on November eighteen, two thousand and twenty-four. The court noted that the timely filing of a notice of appeal is a jurisdictional requirement. The court also found that Ardis’s postjudgment motions to amend the complaint did not toll the appeal period for the dismissal order.
"[T]he timely filing of a notice of appeal in a civil case is a jurisdictional requirement."
Bowles v. Russell, 551 U.S. 205, 214 (2007)
What it means going forward
The dismissal of the appeal leaves the district court’s order dismissing the amended complaint without prejudice in place. The plaintiff’s claims remain subject to refiling within the applicable statute of limitations, but the appellate challenge to the dismissal is terminated.