Title: Boles v. Knab

State: ohio

Issuer: Ohio Supreme Court

Document:

[Until this opinion appears in the Ohio Official Reports advance sheets, it may be cited as 
Boles v. Knab, Slip Opinion No. 2011-Ohio-2859.] 
 
 
 
 
 
NOTICE 
This slip opinion is subject to formal revision before it is published in 
an advance sheet of the Ohio Official Reports.  Readers are requested 
to promptly notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Court of Ohio, 
65 South Front Street, Columbus, Ohio 43215, of any typographical or 
other formal errors in the opinion, in order that corrections may be 
made before the opinion is published. 
 
SLIP OPINION NO. 2011-OHIO-2859 
BOLES, APPELLANT, v. KNAB, WARDEN, APPELLEE. 
[Until this opinion appears in the Ohio Official Reports advance sheets, it 
may be cited as Boles v. Knab, Slip Opinion No. 2011-Ohio-2859.] 
Civil procedure — Actions by prisoners — Institutional policy for obtaining 
statement of cashier in support of affidavit of indigency — R.C. 2969.25. 
(No. 2011-0153 — Submitted June 8, 2011 — Decided June 16, 2011.) 
APPEAL from the Court of Appeals for Ross County, No. 10CA3195. 
__________________ 
 
Per Curiam. 
{¶ 1} We affirm the judgment of the court of appeals dismissing the 
petition of appellant, Shawn R. Boles, for a writ of habeas corpus.  “The 
requirements of R.C. 2969.25 are mandatory, and failure to comply with them 
subjects an inmate’s action to dismissal.”  State ex rel. White v. Bechtel, 99 Ohio 
St.3d 11, 2003-Ohio-2262, 788 N.E.2d 634, ¶ 5; State ex rel. McGrath v. 
McDonnell, 126 Ohio St.3d 511, 2010-Ohio-4726, 935 N.E.2d 830, ¶ 1.  Boles’s 
petition included an affidavit of indigency and sought waiver of prepayment of 
the court’s filing fees, but failed to include in his affidavit of indigency a 
SUPREME COURT OF OHIO 
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statement setting forth the balance in his inmate account for each of the preceding 
six months, as certified by the institutional cashier, in violation of R.C. 
2969.25(C). 
{¶ 2} Boles instead sought leave to file a delayed R.C. 2969.25(C) 
statement, but delayed statements are not permitted by the statute.  R.C. 
2969.25(C); see also Fuqua v. Williams, 100 Ohio St.3d 211, 2003-Ohio-5533, 
797 N.E.2d 982, ¶ 9. 
{¶ 3} Boles asserts that this requirement is unconstitutional, but he fails 
to rebut the presumed constitutionality of R.C. 2969.25.  See Cleveland v. State, 
128 Ohio St.3d 135, 2010-Ohio-6318, 942 N.E.2d 370, ¶ 6 (statutes are presumed 
constitutional and will not be invalidated unless the challenger establishes that the 
legislation is unconstitutional beyond a reasonable doubt). 
{¶ 4} Boles further claims that an internal prison policy1 that has been in 
effect for over ten years prevented him from complying with the requirement of 
R.C. 2969.25(C) when he filed his habeas corpus petition.  But Boles could have 
forwarded his petition and other documents to be filed with the affidavit of 
indigency and cashier’s certification to the cashier so that the cashier could have 
mailed all of the pertinent documents to the clerk of the Ross County Court of 
Appeals.  The policy did not prevent Boles’s compliance with the requirement. 
{¶ 5} Therefore, the court of appeals did not err in dismissing Boles’s 
petition for failure to comply with R.C. 2969.25.2 
Judgment affirmed. 
 
O’CONNOR, C.J., and PFEIFER, LUNDBERG STRATTON, O’DONNELL, 
LANZINGER, CUPP, and MCGEE BROWN, JJ., concur. 
                                                          
 
1 According to Boles, the policy requires inmates to forward all in forma pauperis and indigency 
forms to the prison cashier along with an envelope addressed to the applicable court so that the 
cashier can sign the forms and the six-month certification of the inmate account and mail them 
directly to the court.    
 
2 We deny appellant’s motion to strike appellee’s merit brief. 
January Term, 2011 
3 
 
__________________ 
 
Shawn R. Boles, pro se. 
 
Michael DeWine, Attorney General, and Elizabeth A. Matune, Assistant 
Attorney General, for appellee. 
______________________