Schimmels

This case asks us to determine whether the appellants’ untimely filing of their notice of appeal is excused because the bankruptcy court failed to follow the separate judgment rule of Bankruptcy Rule 9021. The appellants missed the deadline to file their notice of appeal in bankruptcy court, and the district court determined that it was accordingly without jurisdiction to entertain the appeal and dismissed the action. The appellants now contend that their notice of appeal was timely filed because the bankruptcy court failed to enter a separate judgment, under *419 Bankruptcy Rule 9021, and that therefore, the clock never started running with respect to the ten days in which the notice of appeal must be filed. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 158 (d), and we affirm.

I.

The appellants are a group of former employees of General Contractors Inc. (“GCI”) who filed a qui tarn action under the False Claims Act (“FCA”), 31 U.S.C. §§ 3729-3731 , in the Eastern District of Washington. 1 The appellants’ suit alleged that GCI, along with Ed and Mary Jo Schimmels, GCI’s president and assistant treasurer respectively, defrauded the federal government by failing to compensate their…