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Appellate court dismissed the appeal because appellants failed to timely challenge the underlying contempt order and did not move to purge contempt before appealing. The court held that one non-contemnor appellant lacked standing to intervene in the matter.
Contempt; final appealable order; untimely; purge; first time on appeal. Appellants appealed from the trial court's order finding that two nonparty witnesses remained in contempt of court, stemming from a previously issued contempt order. Neither of appellants' arguments are properly before the court. The trial court's initial contempt order finding the nonparty witnesses in contempt was a final appealable order from which appellants could have appealed but chose not to do so. As such, appellants were precluded from challenging the court's finding of contempt in this later appeal. Also, appellants never moved the trial court to purge the contempt order and the trial court never made any determination whether nonparty witnesses had complied with the purge conditions set forth in the initial contempt order. As such, we will not determine, for the first time on appeal, whether the purge conditions had been met. The court further held that one of the appellants that had not been found in contempt was precluded from intervening in a matter between the contemnor and the court. The court therefore dismissed the appeal that had been filed by the appellant that was not subject to the trial court's contempt order.
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