Case Title: PAUL ALBERT FRENZEL V. STATE OF WYOMING, DEPARTMENT OF FAMILY SERVICES

Citation: 

Docket Number: 

State: wyoming

Court: Wyoming Supreme Court

Date: 2007-03-21T00:00:00Z

Document:
PAUL ALBERT FRENZEL V. STATE OF WYOMING, DEPARTMENT OF FAMILY SERVICES2007 WY 50154 P.3d 349Case Number: 06-163Decided: 03/21/2007
OCTOBER TERM, A.D. 2006

 
 
PAUL 
ALBERT FRENZEL,

 
 
Appellant

(Petitioner),

 
 
v.

 
 
STATE OFWYOMING, 
DEPARTMENT OF FAMILY SERVICES,

 
 
Appellee

(Respondent).

 
 
Appeal 
from the DistrictCourtofCarbonCounty

 
 

Representing 
Appellant:

Paul 
Albert Frenzel, Pro 
Se.

 
 

Representing 
Appellee:

Patrick 
J. Crank, Attorney General; Robin Sessions Cooley, Deputy Attorney General; 
Jacob L. Brooks, Assistant Attorney General; and Dan Wilde, Senior Assistant 
Attorney General.

 
 
Before 
VOIGT, C.J., and GOLDEN, HILL, KITE, and BURKE, 
JJ.

 
 
VOIGT, 
Chief Justice.

 
 
[¶1]      The appellant, an 
inmate at the Wyoming State Penitentiary, appeals from an order of the district 
court denying his petition to modify a child support order and to grant him a 
reduction in the amount of his child support obligation arrearage.  We dismiss the appeal because it was 
untimely filed.

 
 
[¶2]      A Judgment and 
Order of Paternity and Support was entered in the district court on January 20, 
1994, whereby the appellant was adjudged to be the "natural" father of two 
children, and was ordered to pay $50.00 per month to the children's mother as 
child support.  On October 17, 2005, 
the appellant filed a petition to modify child support, a motion to modify child 
support arrearages, and an affidavit of indigency in which the appellant stated 
that he was financially unable to pay filing fees.  The appellant's unsworn brief alleges 
that the district court granted his motion for leave to proceed in forma pauperis in the district 
court, but no such order appears in 
the record on appeal.1

 
 
[¶3]      The appellant's 
petition and motion were set for hearing on April 12, 2006.  Prior to that date, the appellant filed a 
request to be able to participate in the hearing telephonically.  The court file does not contain a 
responsive order, but there is a note attached to the request to the effect that 
the hearing would be by telephone.  An order denying the petition and motion 
was entered on April 27, 2006, in which it was noted that the appellant failed 
to appear for the hearing.

 
 
[¶4]      On May 23, 2006, 
the appellant attempted to file a notice of appeal from the April 27, 2006 
order.  He did not, however, pay the 
appellate docketing fee, proffering instead on June 1, 2006 a document entitled 
"Forma Pauperis," in which he sought waiver of the filing fee.  The Clerk of the District Court declined 
to file the notice of appeal on the ground that the appellant was not entitled 
to in forma pauperis status in the 
appeal of a child support modification order.  The appellant then paid the docketing 
fee and filed the notice of appeal on July 10, 2006.

 
 
[¶5]      Three rules of 
appellate procedure bear directly upon this issue:  (1) W.R.A.P. 1.03 declares that the 
timely filing of a notice of appeal is jurisdictional; (2) W.R.A.P. 2.01(a) 
requires that a notice of appeal be filed with the clerk of the trial court 
within thirty days of entry of the appealable order; and (3) W.R.A.P. 2.09(a) 
requires an appellant to pay the appellate docketing fee, or to deliver an order 
permitting him to proceed in forma 
pauperis, to the clerk of the trial court at the time the notice of appeal 
is filed.  In the instant case, the 
record leaves no doubt that the appellant did not pay the docketing fee or 
produce an order allowing him to proceed on appeal in forma pauperis when he attempted to 
file his notice of appeal on May 23, 2006.  
W.R.A.P. 2.09(a) provides that the docketing fee shall be collected, so the district 
court clerk acted properly in refusing to file the notice of appeal.  When the appellant did pay the fee and 
file his notice of appeal on July 10, 2006, more than thirty days had passed 
since entry of the order being appealed.  
Thus, the appeal being untimely, this Court does not have jurisdiction to 
hear it.  W.R.A.P. 1.03.2

 
 
FOOTNOTES

 
 

1The 
record on appeal is not clear, due to the absence of any such order, and due to 
the absence of any evidence as to whether or not the appellant paid the 
requisite fee to file his petition and motion.  Because they have not directly been 
raised or briefed, we will not herein answer either the question of whether a 
person may obtain in forma pauperis 
status for the purpose of filing in the district court a petition to modify 
a child support obligation without payment of district court filing fees, or 
whether a person may obtain in forma 
pauperis status for the purpose of filing in this Court an appeal from the 
denial of a petition to modify a child support obligation without paying the 
appellate docketing fee.

 
 

2One rule 
of appellate procedure that does not apply in this case is W.R.A.P. 10.07, 
relied upon by the appellant. It applies only to criminal 
appeals.