Title: Myrick v. Superior Court Department
Citation: N/A
Docket Number: SJC-12802
State: Massachusetts
Issuer: Massachusetts Supreme Court
Date: January 10, 2020

NOTICE:  All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal 
revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound 
volumes of the Official Reports.  If you find a typographical 
error or other formal error, please notify the Reporter of 
Decisions, Supreme Judicial Court, John Adams Courthouse, 1 
Pemberton Square, Suite 2500, Boston, MA, 02108-1750; (617) 557-
1030; SJCReportersjc.state.ma.us 
 
SJC-12802 
 
KYL V. MYRICK  vs.  SUPERIOR COURT DEPARTMENT. 
 
 
January 10, 2020. 
 
 
Supreme Judicial Court, Superintendence of inferior courts.  
Mandamus.  Practice, Civil, Assembly of record, Action in 
nature of mandamus. 
 
 
Kyl V. Myrick appeals from a judgment of a single justice 
of this court denying his petition for relief in the nature of 
mandamus.  Specifically, Myrick sought an order requiring the 
Superior Court clerk to assemble the record for his appeal in 
his underlying civil action against Harvard University.  We 
affirm. 
Shortly after his appeal was entered in this court, Myrick 
filed a "memorandum appealing denial" of the single justice's 
judgment, in an apparent attempt to comply with S.J.C. Rule 
2:21, as amended, 434 Mass. 1301 (2001).  That rule applies to 
cases in which a single justice of this court "denies relief 
from an interlocutory ruling in the trial court."  S.J.C. Rule 
2:21 (1).  The rule is inapplicable here, where there is no 
interlocutory order of the Superior Court at issue.  
Nonetheless, it is apparent from Myrick's submission and from 
the record below that the single justice neither erred nor 
abused his discretion in denying relief. 
As we have frequently observed -- including in another 
recent appeal by Myrick from a single justice's denial of 
mandamus relief -- "[i]t would be hard to find any principle 
more fully established in our practice than the principle that 
neither mandamus nor certiorari is to be used as a substitute 
for ordinary appellate procedure or used at any time when there 
is another adequate remedy."  Myrick v. Superior Court Dep't, 
2 
 
 
 
479 Mass. 1012, 1012 (2018), quoting Rines v. Justices of the 
Superior Court, 330 Mass. 368, 371 (1953). 
Where a litigant is experiencing delay in the assembly of a 
record, we have identified several practical and legal steps 
that are available to prompt action by the trial court, short of 
seeking extraordinary relief in this court.  See Skandha v. 
Clerk of Superior Court for Civil Business in Suffolk County, 
472 Mass. 1017, 1018 (2015), quoting Zatsky v. Zatsky, 36 Mass. 
App. Ct. 7, 12-13 (1994).  From the record before us, it appears 
that Myrick has not availed himself of these.1  Here, as we have 
previously done, we conclude that the single justice was well 
within his discretion in denying relief where the record does 
not demonstrate that these alternative avenues of relief were 
unavailable.  Skandha, supra at 1018. 
That said, based on our review of the Superior Court 
docket, the materials that are before us, and the material that 
was before the single justice, it appears that the record in 
connection with Myrick's appeal from the November 7, 2018, 
judgment has yet to be assembled.  To the extent there is some 
problem that prevents the clerk from assembling the record, the 
clerk should identify it for Myrick and, as appropriate, work 
with him to resolve it; if there is no problem, we trust that 
the record will be assembled forthwith. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Judgment affirmed. 
 
 
 
The case was submitted on the papers filed, accompanied by 
a memorandum of law. 
 
Kyl V. Myrick, pro se. 
                                                          
 
 
1 Myrick appears to have raised the issue of the delay in 
the assembly of the record in a "motion for a new trial as a 
matter of law," filed in the Superior Court.  However, the only 
relief requested in that motion was a new trial, not the actual 
assembly of the record.