Stebbins v. Stebbins, 2017 Ark. App. 428

David A. Stebbins (son) lived with his father, David D. Stebbins, under a written residency agreement.
On November 24, 2011, police found the father with knife wounds; the son was arrested and charged with battery. Son alleged father assaulted him and then cut himself to frame the son.
Son sued father asserting ten claims across original and amended complaints, including malicious prosecution, abuse of process, defamation, breach of contract, conversion, battery, identity theft, tort of outrage, negligence, and forgery.
At trial the jury was instructed only on breach of contract and battery and returned verdicts for the father on those two claims.
Trial court entered a judgment “pursuant to the jury’s verdict” stating the complaint was dismissed, but did not adjudicate the remaining eight claims from the original and amended complaints.
Appellate court dismissed the son’s appeal for lack of a final, appealable order because the judgment did not dispose of all claims and Rule 54(b) was not invoked.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether judgment was final and appealable	Stebbins argued the trial judgment dismissed his complaint and was appealable	Father argued judgment followed jury verdict and disposed of claims tried	Appeal dismissed for lack of final order; judgment only resolved breach and battery, other claims remain unresolved
Whether Rule 54(b) certification was required	Stebbins implied entry of final judgment without Rule 54(b) was sufficient	Father relied on jury-limited verdict and judgment language	Court held Rule 54(b) was not complied with; certification required to appeal fewer-than-all claims
Whether jury verdict could be read to dispose all claims	Stebbins asserted broad judgment language dismissed entire complaint	Father pointed to limited interrogatories and jury instructions covering only two claims	Court found inconsistency: verdict covered only breach and battery; remaining claims unresolved
Appellate jurisdiction sua sponte review	Stebbins did not contest final-order issue	Father did not raise final-order argument	Court raised jurisdictional final-order requirement sua sponte and dismissed appeal to avoid piecemeal litigation

Stebbins v. Stebbins, 2016 Ark. App. 385 (remand for supplementation and rebriefing due to appellate record defects)
Wilkinson v. Smith, 2012 Ark. App. 604 (appellate courts must raise final-order jurisdictional defects sua sponte)
Brasfield v. Murray, 2009 Ark. App. 879 (order adjudicating fewer than all counts is not final)
Jerry v. Jerry, 2014 Ark. App. 63 (Rule 54(b) must be used to make partial adjudication final)
J-McDaniel Constr. Co. v. Dale E. Peters Plumbing Ltd., 2013 Ark. 177 (final order must dispose of all parties and claims to be appealable)