Assume a case is dismissed for plaintiff’s failure to serve defendants and prosecute the case. Plaintiff then appeals the dismissal order. Can defendants who were never served filed a respondent’s brief as “specially appearing respondents”?  An argument for such standing is that respondents have a right to defend their interests on appeal because reversal would prejudice them. But the Court of Appeal here (in fn.1) says no dice:

A “respondent” is an adverse party (Cal. Rules of Court, rule 8.10(2); see also Code. Civ. Proc., § 902) and a “party” is a person appearing in an action (Cal. Rules of Court, rule 1.6(15)). …  Because these defendants never appeared below, they are not “parties.” Accordingly, we will disregard defendants’ brief and oral arguments.