**UN PUBLISHED** 
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

**No. 0**  **9 -**  **8 2**  **63**

A LVIN LUTHER JONES , Plaintiff

– Appell ant ,

v. GENE M. JOHNSON, Dir. of Dept. of Corr. Va.; HARVARD STEPHENS, Chief Medical Officer for Dept. of Corr. Va.; G. K. WAS HINGTON, Regional Dir. (Central Region) Va.; W. J. TOWNLEY, Warden/Supt. Halifax Corr. Field Unit #23; FRANK WRAY, M.D.

- Doctor Halifax Corr. Cntr. #23; SANDRA VASS, R.N.

-- Head Nurse Halifax Corr. Unit #23; A. FIELDS, L.P.N.

-- Nurse Halifax Corr. Unit #23; J .M.C. BROWN, Grievance Coordinator Halifax Corr. Unit #23 , Defendant s – Appell ees .

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Wes tern District of Virginia , at Roanoke

. J ackson L. Kiser, Senior District Judge. ( 7 : 08

- c v - 00 492

- jlk

- mfu )

Submitted : June 24 , 2010 Decided: June 29, 2010

Before DUNCAN, AGEE, a nd DAVIS , Circuit Judges.

Remand e d by un published per curiam opinion

.

Alvin Luther Jones , Appellant Pro Se
. Mark R. Davis, Assistant Attorney General, Richmond, Virginia ; Jef f W. Rosen, PENDER & COWARD, PC, Virginia Beach, Virginia, for Appellee s .2 Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.3 PER CURIAM: Alvin Luther Jones seeks to appeal the district court’s order granting summary judgment in favor of t he Defendants in his 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (2006) inmate civil rights action . Pursuant to Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 4(a)(1), a notice of appeal in a civil case must be filed with the district court within thirty days after judgment is entered. “[T]h e timely filing of a notice of appeal in a civil case is a jurisdictional requirement.” Bowles v. Russell , 551 U.S. 205, 214 (2007). Therefore, the appeal must be dismissed if the notice of appeal is untimely. Washington v. Bumgarner , 882 F.2d 899, 900 (4 th Cir. 1989). The district court may extend the filing time if “a party so moves no later than 30 days after the time prescribed by . . . Rule 4 (a) expires” and the party shows excusable neglect or good cause. Fed. R. App. P. 4(a)(5)(A)(i)

- (ii). The district court granted Defendants’ motion for summary judgment on October 30, 2009 . The refore, Jones had thirty days, or until November 30, 2009, to file a notice of appeal. Jones file d his notice of appeal , at the earliest, on December 7, 2009, thirty

- seven days after judgment was entered. *

* For purposes of this appeal, we assume that the date a ppearing on the notice of appeal is the earliest date it could (Continued)4 In a letter accompanying the notice of appeal, Jones stated that he filed his original notice of appeal in the wrong court because the district court failed to inform him of his appeal rights or to which court he wa s requir ed to send his notice of appeal.
We construe Jones’ s letter as a timely request for an extension of the thirty

- day appeal period. Therefore, we remand this case to the district court for the limited purpose of enabling the court to determine whe ther Jones has shown excusable neglect or good cause warranting an extension of time to appeal. The record, as supplemented, will then be returned to this court for further consideration.

REMANDED

have been delivered to prison officials for mailing. See Houston v. Lack , 487 U.S. 266, 276 (1988).