Alabama Appellate Watch
Untimely Postjudgment Proceedings in the Probate Court Render Circuit Court Without Jurisdiction; Appeal Dismissed as From a Void Judgment
In Eldridge v. Eldridge, the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals dismissed an appeal in a case originating in the probate court as from a void judgment because postjudgment motions in the probate court were not timely filed.
In Eldridge, the probate court entered a final judgment on
The parties treated the postjudgment motion as if it had been timely filed on
On
The court concluded that the case was due to be dismissed as from a void judgment. It noted that the timely filing of a notice of appeal from the probate court to the circuit court is a jurisdictional act. The defendant’s notice of appeal was due to be filed no later than 42 days from the date the probate court’s order was entered unless there was a timely-filed postjudgment motion tolling that time. In this case, there was not. Although the defendant sought to correct the record to show that her postjudgment motion was filed on
Although the defendant submitted a letter brief in which she alleged that an internal review by the probate court clerk indicated that the postjudgment motion had been filed on September 11, 2006, nothing submitted in connection with that letter was part of the record on appeal and, even assuming that those materials were in the record, there was no indication that the probate court had granted the motion to correct the record. That the plaintiff agreed that the postjudgment motion had been timely filed was no matter because the parties cannot confer subject matter jurisdiction.
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