On October 1, 2015, in Witasick v. Minnesota Mut. Life Ins. Co., the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit held that a docket entry stating "Civil Case Terminated" does not qualify as a separate document of judgment under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure (FRCP) 58 for the purposes of triggering the 30-day time period to file a notice of appeal under Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure (FRAP) 4(a)(1)(A). (No. 14–1150, (3rd Cir. Oct. 1, 2015).)

In November of 2011, appellant Witasick sued Minnesota Mutual Life Insurance in the US District Court for the District of New Jersey for claims related to his insurance policy. The defendants moved to dismiss, and on March 25, 2013, the court issued a memorandum opinion resolving all claims and detailing the court's reasons for granting the motion to dismiss. Although the court did not set out the order of dismissal in a separate document, it did submit an entry on the electronic docket that read "Civil Case Terminated." Appellants filed the notice of appeal on September 23, 2013. The Third Circuit analyzed whether it had appellate jurisdiction.

Litigants have 30 days from entry of a judgment or order to file a notice of appeal (FRAP 4(a)(1)(A)). Under FRCP 58, if an order granting a motion to dismiss is not a separate document, judgment is not deemed entered until 150 days have run from the entry in the civil docket. The Third Circuit considers an order a separate document if it:

Here, the Third Circuit concluded that Witasick's notice of appeal was timely because he had 150 days from the date of the memorandum opinion in which to file it. The court reasoned that the 30-day time period set out in FRAP 4(a)(1)(A) was never triggered in this case because neither the memorandum order nor the docket entry was a separate document for FRCP 58 purposes. In particular, the district court's memorandum opinion did not qualify as a separate document because it was not self-contained and it included the court's reasoning. Further, although the electronic docket entry from March 25, 2013 that read "Civil Case Terminated" was self-contained and did not include the court's reasoning, it did not specify the relief granted and therefore was not a separate document of judgment either.