Quincetta Y. Cargill v. United States of America, United States Attorney’s Office, Melissa K. Atwood

Background Quincetta Cargill, a federal prisoner proceeding pro se, appealed from a district court order dismissing her complaint without prejudice. The Eleventh Circuit treated judgment as entered on July 21, 2025, and calculated the deadline to file a notice of appeal as September 19, 2025. The court’s reasoning The court dismissed the appeal sua sponte for lack of jurisdiction because the notice of appeal was untimely. It explained that the district court’s February 21, 2025 dismissal order was deemed entered on July 21, 2025 under the applicable rules, which made the sixty-day deadline September 19, 2025. Applying the prison mailbox rule, the court deemed Cargill’s notice filed on November 25, 2025. Because that filing date came after the deadline, the notice of appeal could not invoke appellate jurisdiction. Accordingly, the notice of appeal is untimely and cannot invoke our appellate jurisdiction. What it means going forward The appeal was dismissed without reaching the merits, leaving the district court’s dismissal order in place and ending the appellate proceeding.