Gaynor, as personal representative of the Estate of Bacon, deceased, [Ms. SC-2025-0232, Sept. 12, 2025] __ So. 3d __ (Ala. 2025). The Court (Bryan, J.; Stewart, C.J., and Shaw, Mendheim, and McCool, JJ., concur) dismisses an appeal filed by Richard D. Gaynor, as personal representative of the Estate of Arthur L. Bacon, deceased, from an order of the Talladega Circuit Court dismissing the estate’s claims against Attorney Tom Larkin. The Court holds “the circuit court lacked jurisdiction to certify the March 3, 2025, order as final pursuant to Rule 54(b) because, by the time the circuit court entered its April 21, 2025, order, Gaynor had already filed a notice of appeal to this Court on April 11, 2025. See Foster v. Greer & Sons, Inc., 446 So. 2d 605, 607 (Ala. 1984)… (‘The [Rule] 54(b) orders entered after the appeal was taken were nullities, since the trial court was without power at that time to enter them.’).” Ms. *5, internal citation omitted.
The Court declines to remand the case to the trial court for entry of a Rule 54(b) certification because “‘[a] Rule 54(b) certification is not proper if the issues in the claim being certified and a claim that will remain pending in the trial court are so closely intertwined that separate adjudication would pose an unreasonable risk of inconsistent results.’” Ms. *6, quoting Million v. Shumaker, 384 So. 3d 609, 616 (Ala. 2023), some internal quotation marks omitted.