TAYLOR VS. JACOBSON (CHILD CUSTODY)

Key holdings

Practitioner summary

The court dismissed the appeal under NRAP 3(a)(2) for failure to comply with the filing-fee requirement of NRAP 3(e) and the in forma pauperis procedure of NRAP 24. After the appeal was docketed without payment, the court issued a deficiency notice with a 14-day cure period. The court then construed appellant's "Request for Authorization to Proceed in Proper Person; Waiver of Appeal Bond; and to Transmit Entire Record on File" as, in part, a request to proceed in forma pauperis on appeal and denied it, providing an additional 30-day window to either pay the fee or submit a file-stamped district court in forma pauperis motion. Both notices warned that noncompliance would result in dismissal. Appellant did not respond, and the court dismissed.

In plain language

This is a procedural dismissal, not a decision on the merits of the underlying child custody dispute. When someone files an appeal with the Nevada Supreme Court, they generally must pay a filing fee or, if they cannot afford it, ask the court for permission to proceed "in forma pauperis" - a Latin term meaning "as a poor person," which allows a litigant to pursue a case without paying certain fees. Here, Mr. Taylor filed his appeal but did not pay the filing fee. The court gave him two chances to either pay the fee or properly request a fee waiver. He filed a request that the court interpreted as a request to proceed in forma pauperis, but the court denied that request and told him he could either pay the fee or file a copy of an in forma pauperis motion that had first been filed in the district court. The court warned him that if he did not respond, his appeal would be dismissed. He did not respond, so the court dismissed the appeal.