I heard there was a horse race over the weekend. Well I have an interesting little trifecta for you TCPAWorld.

In Floyd v. Sallie Mae, No. 20-12770 Non-Argument Calendar, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 12476 (11Cir.  April 27, 2021) the Court of Appeal dismissed an appeal to a judgment in the underlying case finding that it was untimely. The wrinkle is that the Plaintiff actually timely appealed from the Court’s final judgment in the case, he just didn’t appeal from either of the other two judgments the Court has also issued.

Quick back story: on December 27, 2018 the Court entered summary judgment in favor of Plaintiff finding that it had violated the TCPA by making 28 calls without consent. (Judgment 1). Then on December 19, 2019 (i.e. a year later) the Court entered a “final judgment” on the MSJ. (Judgment 2). Then on June 24, 2020 the Court entered an “amended final judgment” specifying the amount to be paid to Plaintiff. (Judgment 3.)

Plaintiff appealed only the last judgment—which Plaintiff contended was the only real judgment. He believed the Defendant owed him more than $14k for some reason.

The Court did not address the merits, however, agreeing with the Defendant that Plaintiff should have appealed the first judgment from 2018 and not the latter two judgments.

And so, in the case of the three judgments only the first judgment was appealable.

The lesson: appeal early and often, I suppose.