Lorie A. Johnson v. Tomas Dawson

Summary

The court held that an appeal from district court to circuit court must strictly comply with District Court Rule 9(b), which requires filing a certified copy of the district court’s docket sheet. Filing a certified transcript containing the case documents was not an authorized substitute, so the circuit court never acquired jurisdiction and its order was without effect. The district court default judgments therefore remained in force, and the attorney-fee cross-appeal was moot. BROWN, J., concurring, agreed with the result but urged reconsideration of the rule because filing the complete case file exceeded, rather than failed to satisfy, the former procedure.