COX VS. SUMMERBELL (CHILD CUSTODY)

Key holdings

Practitioner summary

This is a clerk's order of dismissal for failure to comply with NRAP 3(e) and the court's subsequent orders. The appeal was docketed November 15, 2022, without the filing fee. The court issued a 14-day cure notice the same day citing NRAP 3(e) and NRAP 24. After the district court denied appellant's IFP application on November 17, 2022, the court issued a December 14, 2022, order giving appellant 30 days to pay the fee or file an IFP motion in the Supreme Court, with a warning that noncompliance would result in dismissal. Appellant did neither. The court dismissed the appeal pursuant to NRAP 3(a)(2).

In plain language

This is a child custody appeal that ended before the court ever considered the merits. When someone files an appeal in Nevada, they generally must pay a filing fee or, if they cannot afford it, ask the court for permission to proceed "in forma pauperis" - meaning without paying the fee because of financial hardship. The appellant, Dama Cox, filed her appeal on November 15, 2022, but did not pay the fee. The Nevada Supreme Court told her she had 14 days to either pay or show she qualified to proceed without paying. The district court then denied her request to proceed without paying. On December 14, 2022, the Supreme Court gave her another 30 days to either pay the fee or file a motion in the Supreme Court itself asking to proceed without paying. The court warned that if she did neither, her appeal would be dismissed. She did not respond. The court therefore dismissed the appeal. The order does not address the underlying child custody dispute.