The Oklahoma Bar Journal February 2023

for certiorari review, and the Oklahoma Supreme Court granted certiorari for the limited purpose of addressing the appealability of such court minutes, minute orders, minutes and summary orders. The court “again definitively pronounce[d]” that “written instruments titled ‘court minute,’ ‘minute order,’ ‘minute,’ or ‘sum mary order’ cannot meet the defini tion of an order which triggers the procedural time limits for appeal, regardless of their substance, content, for length .” 36 The court found that the Court of Civil Appeals erred when it determined the April 17, 2018, minute order was an appealable order for purposes of triggering the procedural time limits for appeal. 37 The court remanded the matter to the Court of Civil Appeals to con sider the subsequent “orders and the merits of the father’s appeals.” 38 Rule 1.23 addresses what a party must do to commence an appeal from a final judgment of the district court. On May 3, 2021, the court amended Rule 1.23. Subsection (a)(2) was amended to clarify and allow “cost deposits” to be paid by check or “a nationally recognized credit or debit card or other electronic payment method pursuant to Rule 1.19.” 39 A new Subsection (a)(3) was also added to address parties who seek to proceed in forma pauperis : (3) A party who was permit ted to proceed in forma pau peris before the lower court or other tribunal may proceed on appeal in forma pauperis, so long as a file-stamped copy of the order approving in forma pauperis status granted by the lower court or other tribunal is attached to the petition in error. If the party first seeks to proceed in forma pauperis in RULE 1.23

a final determination of Father’s April 6, 2018 motion to modify and Mother’s May 15, 2017 request to relocate with the children,” and the trial court did not direct the parties to prepare a final journal entry of judgment. 35 Because the minute was an appealable order, the Court of Civil Appeals concluded that Father’s appeal of that order was untimely. Father petitioned

to his petition in error (filed nearly 10 months after the minute was filed), along with two other orders issued by the trial court. The case was assigned to the Court of Civil Appeals. The Court of Civil Appeals dismissed that portion of Father’s appeal related to the minute as untimely. The court concluded that the minute was “intended as

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THE OKLAHOMA BAR JOURNAL