IN RE: MARRIAGE OF FOSTER (FAMILY)

Key holdings

Practitioner summary

The court dismissed sua sponte for lack of appellate jurisdiction. Citing Brown v. MHC Stagecoach, LLC, 129 Nev. 343, 345, 301 P.3d 850, 851 (2013), the court reiterated that it "may only consider appeals authorized by statute or court rule." As to the order denying reconsideration, the court applied Arnold v. Kip, 123 Nev. 410, 417, 168 P.3d 1050, 1054 (2007), for the proposition that "[a]n order denying reconsideration is not appealable." As to the partial attorney fees award, the court observed that no final judgment appeared to have been entered, rendering the fees order interlocutory. The court referenced NRAP 3A(b)(8), which permits an appeal from a special order entered after final judgment, including post-judgment awards for attorney fees or costs - a predicate not satisfied here. Having concluded it lacked jurisdiction, the court dismissed the appeal and denied as moot the respondent's December 16, 2025 motion to dismiss and the appellant's November 21, 2025 motion to consolidate appeals.

In plain language

This is a divorce-related appeal that the Nevada Supreme Court threw out before reaching the merits because it had no power to hear it. The husband, representing himself, tried to appeal two things from the family court: (1) an order refusing to reconsider an earlier ruling, and (2) an order that partially awarded attorney fees. The Supreme Court explained that it can only hear appeals that a statute or court rule specifically allows. Under existing Nevada case law, an order denying a motion to reconsider is not on the list of appealable orders. As for the partial attorney fees order, it appeared no final judgment had yet been entered in the underlying case, which made the fees order "interlocutory" - meaning it came in the middle of an ongoing case rather than at the end. Mid-case orders generally cannot be appealed until the case is over. Because neither order could be appealed at this stage, the court dismissed the appeal. It also denied as moot the respondent's pending motion to dismiss and the appellant's pending motion to consolidate appeals.