WHAT IS A FINAL JUDGMENT?

In my case, there are always problems which ultimately means that I usually have one motion or another waiting to be heard in Court.  Rarely, if I seriously don't like the outcome of a decision, I will go to Appellate Court and ask them to review the Trial Court's decision for accuracy.

As citizens of this great country, we are able to appeal a judgment of the Trial Court "as of right".  However, we are only allowed to appeal judgments that are final, not judgments that are temporary, or what is known as interlocutory judgments.

One primary difficulty I have faced in going to Appellate Court is that, inevitably, the opposing attorney in my case will file a Motion to Dismiss stating that the Trial Court Ruling I am trying to appeal is not a final judgment. 

The first time I read that I was completely floored because I had no idea what a final judgment is as opposed to any other kind of judgment.  So I lost that first Motion to Dismiss because I simply didn't know how to answer the objection.  So, to make things easy on you folks, and to prevent you from majorly losing like I did, let me inform you regarding the issue of the Appellate Court and final judgments. 

This is the most important point.  As I have said, you are only allowed to appeal a final judgment.  A final judgment is a judgment that takes place after a conventional trial on the merits of a case which disposes of all parties and all issues.  This final judgment is ordinarily, but not always, articulated in a Memorandum of Decision submitted not long after the trial has concluded. 

A final judgment can be understood in contrast to an interlocutory judgment which is a provisional, interim, or temporary judgment.  An interlocutory judgment is generally put into place between the beginning and end of a lawsuit in order to resolve a particular legal issue which is not the final issue being heard at trial.  An example of this could be an evidentiary issue or a discovery issue. 

Otherwise, an interlocutory judgment could be made in order to prevent irreparable harm from occurring during the course of the lawsuit.  A good example of the latter would be alimony or child support orders, pendente lite, which make sure that the children in a divorce case have sufficient money to pay for shelter and food during the course of the lawsuit.

Most interlocutory orders cannot be appealed because state and federal courts do not want piecemeal litigation.  However, some interlocutory orders have been considered final judgments for the purposes of appeal.  The standard for determining whether an interlocutory judgment can be appealled was established in State v. Curcio 191 Conn. 27 (1983). 

In this case, the court determined that an interlocutory judgment can be considered final if it meets the following guidelines: 

1.  Where the order or action terminates a separate and distinct proceeding or;

2. Where the order or action so concludes the rights of the parties that further proceedings cannot affect them. 

In this second prong, the requirement is that the party seeking to appeal must establish that the Trial Court's order threatens the preservation of a fundamental right and that this right will be irrestrievably lost and the party irreparably harmed unless he or she immediately appeals.

Some examples of appealable interlocutory orders are as follows: Taff v. Bettcher, 243, Conn. 380 and Madigan v. Madigan supra 224 Conn. 758, 620 A.2d 1276 (1993) where the Court determined that interlocutory orders in regard to custody or visitation could be considered final for the purposes of appeal. 

In Taff v. Bettcher, where custody was at issue, the court stated that the consideration is whether an order so impacts the rights of the Parties as to require immediate review.  In regard to issues of custody and visitation the courts stated that when it comes to a temporary custody order, appeal is the only means of assuring the rights of parents because a lost opportunity to spend time with a child is not recoverable. 

There was also Sweeney v. Sweeney, 271, Conn. 193 (2004) where the Supreme Court determined that interlocutory orders in regard to a child's education are appealable.  Here the court felt the case should be heard because it impacted the parents' authority to make decisions on behalf of their children, the denial of which could cause ireparable harm.

When it comes to final judgments, the judgment for the dissolution of your marriage was final.  A judgment regarding a motion to reopen is final.  Once a judgment has been made, you have twenty days to appeal it.

Where you as a litigant can get into trouble, however, is when you do not realize you have been given a final judgment and then you miss the appeals period because you were unaware that the clock had started ticking. That happens often when the Judge doesn't actually write up his decision and just states it in open Court, leaving it up to you to figure out what just happened.

I had a problem where I was litigating a particular motion which became so complicated that the Trial Judge came up with five different Memoranda of Decision on the case, adding extra pieces of his judgment as he went along. So, which one of those Memoranda was the final judgment? 

Well, you can be sure the judge stated that the Memorandum most inconvenient for me was considered the final judgment. 

Since Trial Judges don't want to have their decisions reviewed by the higher Courts, they aren't exactly going to make it easy for you to figure out what is what when it comes to a final judgment. So, how are you supposed to figure out what is going on, particularly if you are a self represented party? 

One way to find out is simply to ask in open court once the Judge has verbalized his ruling. You can say, "Your Honor, is that a final judgment?" and then he can answer "yes" or "no" and you can run with the ball he throws you one way or another. 

If you are unsure and you haven't received a written ruling, your other option is to later on file a Motion For Articulation asking the Trial Judge to clarify the point for you.  You can even go into detail and ask, if not, is this an appealable interlocutory judgment, if you think it might be.  But don't wait for an answer before filing your appeal, because you could wait forever. Judges often don't bother to respond to self represented parties when they ask for articulation. And once you have missed the deadline, you've lost your case simply by default. 

Also, when it comes to tricks, often the Court will issue its final judgment in a Memorandum of Decision, and then the clerk will dilly dally for a week or so  before dropping it in the mail to send it on to you.  The appeals period begins as soon as the Court issues its decision, not when you receive the decision in the mail.  So make sure you check the judicial website for when the decision comes out, again, so you won't miss your opportunity to appeal.