Salas v. Arby's ( 2021 )

ORIGINAL 11/29/2021 IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF MONTANA Case Number: DA 21-0559 DA 21-0559 FILED SERGIO VALDEZ SALAS, NOV 2 9 2021 BONMESII Greenwood Court Clerk of Supreme Plaintiff and Appellant, state of Monta na v. ORDER ARBY'S, Defendant and Appellee. This Court reviews briefs to ensure compliance with Rules Id through 13 of the Montana Rules of Appellate Procedure. On November 15, 2021, this Court rejected Appellant Sergio Valdez Salas's opening brief and sent it back for deficiencies. After reviewing Appellant's revised opening brief filed on November 29, 2021, this Court has determined that the revised brief does not comply with the Rules and must again be resubmitted. Appellant's revised brief contains five errors, three of which are content errors under M. R. App. P. 12(1). First, (1) Appellant's revised brief does not adhere to the organizational requireinents articulated in M. R. App. P. 12(1)(b)-(h), which specifies that an opening brief must contain seven separate sections in the following order: an "issue for review," followed by a "statement of the case," followed by a "statement of the facts," followed by the relevant "standard[s] of review," followed by a "summary of the argument" section, followed by the "argument" section, and ending with a "short conclusion stating the precise relief sought." Both Appellant's initial opening brief and revised opening brief fail to include any of these seven sections, which should be separated by disfinct headers within the brief. Second, (2) upon revising his brief to include a "statement of facts" section, we further request that Appellant's fact section include citations to specific pages in the record/pages in the appendix, pursuant to M. R. App. P. 12(1)(d). Appellant's revised brief states only that "[d]ocuments [from the record] are attached as exhibits A through G[,]" which fails to meet this requirement. Third, (3) pursuant to M. R. App. P. 12(1)(a) and 12(1)(i), we request that Appellant include two separate tables of contents—one for his brief and one for the appendix to his brief—and request that these tables be placed at the beginning of Appellant's -brief and Appelfant's appendix, respectively. Appellant's most recent submission incorrectly provides a single, joint table of contents for both his brief and its appendix, and this table is located at the end of Appellant's appendix. For Appellant's reference in making these corrections, the full text of M. R. App. P. 12(1)(a)-(i) reads as follows: (1) Brief of the appellant. The brief of the appellant shall contain under appropriate headings and in the order here indicated: (a) A table of contents, with page references, and a table of cases (alphabetically arranged), statutes and other authorities cited, with references to the pages of the brief where they are cited; (b) A statement of the issues presented for review. Parties are encouraged to limit the number of issues to 4 or fewer; (c) A statement of the case. The statement shall first indicate briefly the nature of the case and its procedural disposition in the court below. Only that procedural background which is relevant to the issue or issues raised shall be included in the statement of the case; (d) A statement of the facts relevant to the issues presented for review, with references to the pages or the parts of the record at which material facts appear; (e) A statement of the standard of review as to each issue raised, together with a citation of authority; (f) A summary of the argument. The summary shall contain a succinct, clear, and accurate statement of the arguments made in the body of the brief and not be a mere repetition of the argument headings; (g) An argument. The argument shall contain the contentions of the appellant with respect to the issues presented, and the reasons therefor, with citations to the authorities, statutes, and pages of the record relied on; (h) A short conclusion stating the precise relief sought; and (i) An appendix that includes the relevant judgment, order(s), findings of fact, conclusions of law, jury instruction(s), ruling(s), or decision(s) from which the appeal is taken together with any written memorandum or rationale of the court, and those pages of the transcript containing any oral ruling in support. This appendix shall include a table of contents and plain paper tabs and may be a separately-bound document if the volume of the required attachments makes this necessary. Fourth, (4) Appellant's revised submission fails to provide this Court with a certificate of service indicating that opposing counsel was served with the revised brief, in violation of M. R. App. P. 10(4). M. R. App. P. 10(4) requires that all briefs be accompanied by a "certificate of service in the fonn of a statement of the date and manner of service and of the names and addresses of the persons served, certified by the person who made service." Fifth, (5) Appellant provided this Court with a single hard copy of his revised brief rather than the required seven copies under M. R. App. P. 13. Therefore, IT IS ORDERED that the referenced brief is again rejected. IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that within ten (10) days of the date of this Order, Appellant shall file seven copies of a revised brief containing the changes ordered herein with the Clerk of this Court, that Appellant shall serve one copy of this revised brief on each counsel of record, and that Appellant shall file with the Clerk of this Court a signed certificate of service showing the date service was made and the names of the persons served. IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that no changes, additions, or deletions other than those specified in this Order may be made to the brief as originally filed; and IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that the times for any subsequent briefing contained in M. R. App. P. 13 shall run from the date of filing of the revised brief. The Clerk of this Court is directed to mail a true copy of this Order to Appellant and to mail a true copy of this Order to all counsel upon whom the brief was served. DATED this 29th day of November, 2021. For the Court, Justice