UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

DISTRICT OF NEW JERSEY

CURTIS CONOVER, :

: Civil Action No. 11-1614 (JBS)

Petitioner, :

:

v. : ORDER AND FINDINGS OF FACT

: ON LIMITED REMAND

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, :

et al., :

:

Respondents. :

This matter having come before the Court upon remand by the 

United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit for the 

limited purpose of making factual findings as to when Petitioner 

deposited his Notice of Appeal in the internal mail system at 

FCI Fort Dix and any other facts relative to determining 

appellate jurisdiction (Docket Entry # 12); and the Court having 

issued an Order to Show Cause directing the parties to address 

the limited issue on remand (Dkt. # 13); and Petitioner having 

filed no response to the Order to Show Cause; and Respondents 

having submitted a response to the Order to Show Cause including 

information and documentation concerning the internal mail 

system at FCI Fort Dix and Petitioner’s use of the internal mail 

system during the relevant time period at issue; and the Court 

having considered the submissions of the parties, for the 
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reasons explained in the Opinion of today’s date and for good 

cause shown;

The Court FINDS as follows:

1. There is an established internal mail system at FCI 

Fort Dix for outgoing inmate mail that provides separate 

procedures for outgoing general correspondence and outgoing 

special/legal mail.

2. Outgoing special/legal mail sent by an inmate must be 

hand delivered to his Unit Team, where it is entered in a Unit 

logbook for special/legal mail, which records the date, inmate 

name and register number, addressee, housing unit number and 

staff signature. 

3. The Unit logbook for Unit 5711, where Petitioner has 

been housed since March 26, 2010, shows no special/legal mail 

sent by Petitioner during the relevant months of February, March 

and April 2012.

4. Petitioner did not use special/legal mail to file his 

Notice of Appeal.

5. There is a mail depository for outgoing inmate general 

correspondence at each inmate housing unit. To utilize outgoing 

general correspondence, an inmate seals his mail item and places 

it in his housing unit’s mail depository. 

6. Each weekday morning (Monday through Friday, excluding 

federal holidays), the Morning Watch Compound Officer collects 
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outgoing mail from the general correspondence mail depositories 

in each housing unit and delivers the collected outgoing mail to 

the vestibule of the Compound Control Center for safekeeping 

until the Mail Room staff arrive. The Mail Room staff retrieves 

the outgoing general correspondence mail from the vestibule by 

7:30 AM, and takes that mail to the Mail Room in the Core 

Services Building. Then all outgoing mail is taken by the Mail 

Room staff to the local United States Post Office by 9:00 AM 

each day, Monday through Friday, excluding federal holidays.

7. FCI Fort Dix does not maintain a log or any other 

record of outgoing general correspondence sent by inmates.

8. There is no record of receipt of Petitioner’s Notice of 

Appeal by the Clerk of the Court in March or April 2012, which 

would be noted on the docket in this matter.

9. The Assistant U.S. Attorney assigned to this matter 

declares that the U.S. Attorney’s Office never received a mailed 

copy of the Notice of Appeal in 2012 or 2013. Rather, 

notification of Petitioner’s Notice of Appeal was received via 

Notice of Electronic Filing for Docket Entry # 9, on January 18, 

2013.

10. Petitioner’s Notice of Appeal, bearing an unsigned 

Certificate of Service dated March 2, 2012, was received by the 

Clerk of the U.S. District Court in Camden, New Jersey, on 

January 17, 2013. (Dkt # 9.)
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11. The Notice of Appeal was contained in an envelope 

properly addressed to the Clerk of Court, with proper postage, 

bearing the postmark “Trenton NJ 085 – 14 JAN 2013 PM61.” (Dkt. 

# 9 at p. 3.)

12. All of the above facts and documentary evidence 

indicate that Petitioner mailed his Notice of Appeal by use of 

outgoing inmate general correspondence procedures long after the 

60-day filing deadline for Petitioner’s notice of appeal

pursuant to Fed.R.App.P. 4(a)(1)(B).

13. There is no evidence to prove that the Notice of 

Appeal was deposited as special/legal mail with the established 

internal mail system at FCI Fort Dix. Accordingly, this Court 

finds that Petitioner cannot rely on the prison mailbox rule for 

timely filing of his Notice of Appeal under Fed.R.App.P. 4(c)(1) 

necessary to confer appellate jurisdiction.

THEREFORE, in light of the Court’s findings of fact, as 

stated above, and in the Court’s accompanying Opinion of today’s 

date,

IT IS this 14th day of August, 2013 hereby:

ORDERED AND ADJUDGED that Petitioner failed to deposit his 

Notice of Appeal within sixty (60) days of February 23, 2012, 

into the established internal mail system at FCI Fort Dix; and 

it is further
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ORDERED that Clerk of the Court shall serve a copy of this 

Order and accompanying Opinion upon Respondents electronically, 

and upon Petitioner by regular mail, and the Clerk is directed 

to close the file accordingly.

s/ Jerome B. Simandle

JEROME B. SIMANDLE, Chief Judge

United States District Court