NO. 26500
HOUSING
FINANCE AND DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION, a public body and body
corporate and politic, Plaintiff-Appellant
vs.
1974
LIMITED PARTNERSHIP, a Hawaii limited partnership; and DALE
BAKER FERGUSON, Defendants-Appellees
and
NORMA
ELIZABETH BURNER; RAY FRANKLIN BURNER; ROSE LORAINE
FERGUSON; JOSEPH S.K. KEANE; MIRIAM M.K. KEANE; SAMSON
P. LOW;
VERNICA L. LOW; JANET SACHIKO TANAHARA; RUSSELL TAMIO TANAHARA;
BLOSSOM DAISY TONG; VERNON RANDOLPH
WAHILANI TONG; BARNABY S.K.
YOU; ROBERTA M.H. YOU, (Herbert M.D. You and Diana M.Y. You,
Sellers under Agreement of Sale); JOHN
DOES 1-200; MARY DOES 1-
200; DOE PARTNERSHIPS 1-50; DOE CORPORATIONS 1-50; DOE "NON-
PROFIT" CORPORATIONS 1-50; and DOE
ENTITIES 1-50, Defendants
It further appears that the circuit court extended the time for appealing the December 1, 2003 order pursuant to HRAP 4(a)(4)(B), but the extension order was entered after the record on appeal was filed in the supreme court on June 7, 2004 and the record on appeal was not supplemented with the extension order. Even so, the circuit court abused its discretion in extending the time for appeal inasmuch as appellant's misreading of the ninety-day provision of HRAP 4(a)(3) was not a plausible misconstruction of the rule, but a failure to read and comply with the plain language of HRAP 4(a)(3) that did not constitute excusable neglect for purposes of HRAP 4(a)(4)(B). See Hall v. Hall, 95 Hawai`i 318, 320, 22 P.3d 965, 967 (2001). The April 7, notice of appeal being untimely, we lack jurisdiction over this appeal. See HRAP 26(b); Bacon v. Karlin, 68 Haw. 648, 650, 727 P.2d 1127, 1128 (1986)(the failure to file a timely notice of appeal in a civil matter is a jurisdictional defect that can neither be waived by the parties nor disregarded by the appellate court in the exercise of judicial discretion). Accordingly,
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that this appeal is dismissed for lack of appellate jurisdiction.
DATED: Honolulu,
Hawai`i, August 12, 2004.