Opinion ID: 195764
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: the proffers on appeal

Text: 7 An INS regulation provides in pertinent part that [t]he decision of the [BIA] shall be in writing ... and a copy shall be served upon the alien or party affected as provided in part 292 of this chapter. 8 C.F.R. Sec. 3.1(f) (1994). The cross-referenced regulation stipulates that service may be effected by mail upon the attorney or representative of record, or the person himself if unrepresented. 8 C.F.R. Sec. 292.5(a) (1994). At all times material hereto, Murphy was petitioner's attorney of record. He claims not to have received timeous notice of the BIA's September 30 decision. Desiring to shed light on this factual issue, we authorized the parties to submit fact-specific proffers anent the notification issue. See Bemis v. United States, 30 F.3d 220, 222 & n. 2 (1st Cir.1994) (authorizing factual proffers on appeal). 8 Petitioner submitted an affidavit signed by Attorney Murphy's secretary, Montsie Moreno, stating that she sorted the lawyer's mail during October of 1993, but did not receive a copy of the BIA's decision in that time frame. For its part, the INS submitted two sworn declarations. The declaration of April M. Verner, supervisory case management analyst of the BIA's Docket Unit, certified, based on her knowledge of BIA procedure and the record of the case, that a copy of the BIA's September 30, 1993 decision had been mailed contemporaneously to Attorney Murphy at 6 Faneuil Hall Marketplace, Boston, MA 02109 (which was counsel's address of record as indicated on BIA Form EOIR-27, dated September 7, 1990). 9 The second declaration dovetails with Verner's statement but goes on to strike a somewhat different chord. In it, Judith E. Arnott, the Boston-based INS officer who made the arrangements for petitioner's deportation, observed that a copy of Form I-294 (the official notice of the country to which a particular individual's deportation is directed) had been mailed to Attorney Murphy at his address of record shortly after petitioner's deportation, and that the mailing was returned to the INS on December 7, 1993, marked forwarding time expired. Ms. Arnott added that neither petitioner nor his representative, Attorney Murphy, ever requested the district director to stay petitioner's deportation. 10 The parties filed no further proffers. At oral argument, however, Attorney Murphy advised that he continued to maintain an office at 6 Faneuil Hall Marketplace and implied that he had never arranged to have mail forwarded from that address. Nevertheless, he conceded that, in the fall of 1993, his principal offices were located elsewhere, and the Faneuil Hall office was checked for mail at infrequent intervals (perhaps twice a week).