Marie A. Becton v. SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION; ANDREW M. SAUL, Commissioner of Social Security

21-1184Court of Appeals for the Fourth CircuitMay 25, 2021

Full text

UNPUBLISHED
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT
No. 21-1184
MARIE A. BECTON,
Plaintiff - Appellant,
v.
SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION; ANDREW M. SAUL, Commissioner
of Social Security,
Defendants - Appellees.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, at
Raleigh. James C. Dever III, District Judge. (5:20-cv-00394-D)
Submitted: May 20, 2021 Decided: May 25, 2021
Before WILKINSON, NIEMEYER, and MOTZ, Circuit Judges.
Dismissed by unpublished per curiam opinion.
Marie Becton, Appellant Pro Se. Wanda Denise Mason, SOCIAL SECURITY
ADMINISTRATION, Baltimore, Maryland, for Appellee.
Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.

-- 1 of 2 --

2
PER CURIAM:
Marie A. Becton seeks to appeal the district court’s order granting Defendants’ first
motion for an extension of time in which to file the administrative record and answer her
complaint.* This court may exercise jurisdiction only over final orders, 28 U.S.C. § 1291,
and certain interlocutory and collateral orders, 28 U.S.C. § 1292; Fed. R. Civ. P. 54(b);
Cohen v. Beneficial Indus. Loan Corp., 337 U.S. 541, 545-46 (1949). The order Becton
seeks to appeal is neither a final order nor an appealable interlocutory or collateral order.
Accordingly, we dismiss the appeal for lack of jurisdiction. We dispense with oral
argument because the facts and legal contentions are adequately presented in the materials
before this court and argument would not aid the decisional process.
DISMISSED
* Becton states in her informal brief that she is also seeking to appeal the district
court’s order denying her motion for default judgment. We conclude that Becton’s
informal brief may not serve as a notice of appeal of that order because Becton filed her
brief outside the 60-day appeal period. See Fed. R. App. P. 4(a)(1)(B); Smith v. Barry,
502 U.S. 244, 248-49 (1992) (holding that appellate brief may serve as notice of appeal
provided it otherwise complies with rules governing proper timing and substance).

-- 2 of 2 --

Continue your research in ChatGPT or Claude

Connect Omnilex to search the legal corpus from your AI assistant.