COA Excuses Appellant's Failure To Include In Record A Notice Of Arrangement For Transcript

In a published case today, the appellant failed to include in the record on appeal a copy of a notice of arrangement for the transcript, as required by the appellate rules. The appellees pointed this out in their brief, contending the transcript wasn't delivered until 124 days after the notice was filed. Nonetheless, the panel (Judges Wynn, Steelman, and Geer) didn't see any reason to avoid the merits, stating: "Defendants have not argued that any prejudice resulted from this omission or delay; moreover, both parties received extensions of time to prepare their briefs to this Court, which would have mitigated any problems resulting from the delayed transcript. We see no reason these technical rules violations would impede our understanding of the issues on appeal."