BROWN VS. CRUZ CALVA (FAMILY)

Key holdings

Practitioner summary

The court dismissed this pro se child custody appeal for failure to prosecute under NRAP 3E. After issuing a May 21, 2025 briefing order pursuant to NRAP 3E(d)(1) requiring a fast track opening brief by July 21, 2025, the court struck two successive deficient briefs (filed July 23 and August 7, 2025) and issued repeated cure orders with NRAP 3E(I) dismissal warnings. Following appellant's failure to comply with the September 4, 2025 order directing a corrected brief within 14 days, and absent any further communication from appellant, the court found the appeal abandoned and dismissed it.

In plain language

This is a child-custody appeal that never reached the merits. After a Clark County family court judge entered a custody order, Lonnie Perry Brown appealed to the Nevada Supreme Court without a lawyer. In appeals of this kind, the appellant - the person challenging the lower court's ruling - must file a "fast track opening brief," a written document explaining why the lower court got it wrong. The Supreme Court ordered Brown to file that brief by July 21, 2025, and warned him that missing the deadline could end his appeal. Brown filed a brief two days late, on July 23, 2025, but the court found it did not meet the rules and struck it. The court gave him 14 days to fix the problems and warned him again. He re-filed on August 7, 2025, but that version was also deficient and was struck on August 8, 2025. The court gave him another deadline of August 18, 2025, with another warning. When he missed that deadline, the court issued yet another order on September 4, 2025, giving him 14 more days and another warning. Brown never filed a conforming brief and stopped communicating with the court. Concluding that he had abandoned the appeal, the Supreme Court dismissed it. The custody order from the family court therefore stands.