On July 5, 2016, the Court of Appeals dismissed an appeal for failure to include the business court designation papers.  In Grasinger v. Williams, the court reasoned that, without information about designation appearing in the record, it could not be 100% sure whether the case was designated for the business court before October 1, 2014.  That date matters, because cases designated after October 1, 2014 must be appealed directly to the Supreme Court, not the Court of Appeals.

After the opinion’s release, many wondered whether the court could have taken judicial notice of the date of designation for the case, which is available on the business court’s website.

Yesterday, the Court withdrew the opinion in response to appellants’ motion seeking to amend the record, asking the court to take judicial notice of the designation date, and requesting consideration on the merits.

We’ll keep you posted on how this turns out. In the meantime, you can avoid this trap.  Just include your designation papers in the record to eliminate any jurisdictional doubt.

–Matt Leerberg

h/t Publius