Marian Hollywood v. City of Santa Maria Dorothy Lyman Michael A. Maramonte Wayne Schwammel, (Two Cases)

The question we must decide in this case is whether either of plaintiff-appellant’s two notices of appeal is timely. Plaintiff-appellant, by her then counsel, filed her first notice of appeal after judgment was entered but before entry of the order denying her motion for new trial. Several months after entry of the order, she replaced her former attorney with a new attorney, who filed a second notice on her behalf. The second notice, however, was filed over a year after entry of the order denying her new trial motion. As a result, appellees have moved to dismiss both appeals.

This is the most recent in a series of eases in which we have discussed the provisions of Fed.R.App.P. 4(a) regarding entry of judgment as these provisions apply to cases where a party has made a timely post-judgment motion under Fed.R.Civ.P. 59. See Allah v. Superior Court, 871 F.2d 887 (9th Cir.1989); Beaudry Motor Co. v. Abko Properties, Inc., 780 F.2d 751 (9th Cir.1986), cert. denied, 479 U.S. 825 , 107 S.Ct. 100 , 93 L.Ed.2d 51 (1986); Calhoun v. United States, 647 F.2d 6 (9th Cir.1981). We consider this case against the backdrop of two Supreme Court decisions: Acosta v. Louisiana Dept. of Health and…