SILVER VS. TOWNER (CHILD CUSTODY)

Key holdings

Practitioner summary

The Supreme Court dismissed the appeal under NRAP 3(a)(2) for failure to pay the filing fee. The court applied the procedure under NRAP 24 governing in forma pauperis applications: it first remanded for the district court to rule on the IFP application, then upon denial below, allowed appellant to renew the request before the Supreme Court under NRAP 24(a)(5). After denying the renewed motion and providing 14 days to cure by paying the fee, with explicit warning of dismissal, the court dismissed when appellant neither paid nor responded.

In plain language

This is a procedural dismissal, not a ruling on the merits of any custody dispute. When a party files an appeal with the Nevada Supreme Court, they ordinarily must pay a filing fee. If they cannot afford it, they may ask to proceed "in forma pauperis," meaning the court waives the fee for indigent litigants. Here, Mr. Silver filed his appeal without paying the fee. The Supreme Court first asked the district court to rule on his fee-waiver request; the district court denied it on February 28, 2022. The Supreme Court then gave Silver the option to either pay the fee or file a fee-waiver motion directly with the Supreme Court. Silver filed an affidavit, which the court treated as a motion to proceed in forma pauperis. On May 16, 2022, the Supreme Court denied that motion and gave Silver 14 days to pay the fee, warning that failure to pay would result in dismissal. Silver did not pay and did not respond. The court therefore dismissed the appeal. Because the dismissal is for non-payment of the filing fee, the opinion does not address the underlying child custody issues.