Opinion
No. 69283
03-17-2016
BETTY MESI, Appellant, v. SELECT PORTFOLIO SERVICING; NATIONAL DEFAULT SERVICING CORPORATION; AND TIFFANY & BOSCO, P.A., Respondents.
ORDER DISMISSING APPEAL
This is an appeal from a district court order dismissing a complaint in a slander of title action. Although the underlying complaint identified appellant as a plaintiff in the caption and bore her signature, there is no indication in the record that she ever paid the district court filing fee, see NRS 19.013(1) (requiring the clerk of the court to collect a fee of $56.00 to commence a district court action), or moved that court to proceed without payment of costs. See NRS 12.015 (providing that a person who wishes to prosecute a civil action without costs may "[f]ile an affidavit with the court setting forth with particularity facts concerning the person's income, property and other resources which establish that the person is unable to prosecute or defend the action because the person is unable to pay the costs of so doing"). Because appellant neither paid the filing fee nor obtained an order to proceed in forma pauperis, we conclude that she never became a party to the action below. See NRS 12.015; NRS 19.013(1).
Appellant's co-plaintiff in the underlying action, her son Eric Mesi, filed a motion pursuant to NRS 12.015, which was granted by the district court, and the action proceeded as to him until it was dismissed, without prejudice, based on his failure to appear at a contempt hearing. But Eric Mesi did not appeal from the dismissal, and thus, he is not a party before this court.
Thus, because only a party may appeal from an adverse district court judgment, appellant did not have a right to appeal the dismissal of the underlying action, and we therefore lack jurisdiction over this appeal. See NRAP 3A(a) (providing for an appeal by an aggrieved party); Albert D. Massi, Ltd. v. Bellmyre, 111 Nev. 1520, 1521, 908 P.2d 705, 706 (1995) (explaining that only a party has a right to appeal an adverse decision of the district court). Accordingly, we
As we lack jurisdiction over this appeal, we take no action on the documents filed by appellant on December 14, 2015; January 5, 2016; February 3, 2016; and March 16, 2016. --------
/s/_________, C.J.
Gibbons
/s/_________, J.
Tao
/s/_________, J.
Silver cc: Hon. Patrick Flanagan, District Judge
Betty Mesi
Washoe District Court Clerk