Opinion ID: 2433040
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: first and second amended 29.15 motions

Text: The next issue is whether the trial court had jurisdiction to rule on defendant's first and second amended motions. Defendant's amended motion must be properly verified and filed in a timely fashion in order to comply with Rule 29.15(f), which states: Any amended motion shall be verified by movant and shall be filed within thirty days of the date counsel is appointed or the entry of appearance by counsel that is not appointed. The court may extend the time for filing the amended motion for one additional period not to exceed thirty days. Id. (Emphasis added.) Unless both the time and verification requirements are met, the motion court has no jurisdiction to rule on the defendant's 29.15 motion. First, we will address the verification requirement and the effect that defendant White having signed it in blank had on the motion court's jurisdiction. The purpose of requiring verification of defendant's amended motion is to ensure the accuracy and completeness of the 29.15 motion drafted by defendant's counsel. It also discourages frivolous and unfounded allegations. Malone v. State, 798 S.W.2d 149, 151 (Mo. banc 1990). In this case, defendant attached a handwritten verification, which he had signed on November 14, 1989, to both his first and second amended motions. This verification, which was signed in blank, predated the existence of both amended motions. Defendant White stated that he signed the verification in blank during his initial meeting with his appointed counsel so that it [the verification] would be available when the amended motion was ready. By signing the verification in blank, defendant knew or should have known that he was an active participant in falsely verifying a document that had not yet been written. We, therefore, will not allow him to later argue that the document that he falsely verified is incomplete or does not raise all grounds known for relief. When White signed the verification in blank, he waived all his rights to complain about its content. The fact that defendant White signed the verification in blank also has no effect on the motion court's jurisdiction. We will not allow a defendant who actively participates in falsifying the verification to argue lack of jurisdiction because of that improper verification. Once White signed the verification and it was notarized by his attorney, he waived all right to assert that the verification requirement of Rule 29.15 was not met for the purpose of establishing the motion court's jurisdiction. The second requirement that must be met to invoke the court's jurisdiction is that the motion be timely filed. Rule 29.15 clearly states that defendant has thirty days to file his amended motion and that the court may extend the period for filing for one additional period not to exceed thirty days. Id. In other words, the defendant is allowed a maximum limit of sixty days to file his amended motion from the day his counsel is appointed. This Court has held that the effective date of appointment of counsel is the date on which the office of public defender is designated rather than the date of counsel's entry of appearance. White, 813 S.W.2d at 864, citing Schneider v. State, 787 S.W.2d 718, 720 (Mo. banc), cert. denied, 498 U.S. 882, 111 S.Ct. 231, 112 L.Ed.2d 186 (1990). Here, the public defender's office was appointed on September 25, 1989. Defendant's first attorney was given until October 23, 1989, to file his amended motion. Defendant's first attorney then requested a thirty day extension, and he was granted until November 23, 1989, to file his amended motion. On November 9, defendant's first attorney withdrew and his second appointed attorney entered an appearance. After entering his appearance, however, defendant's second appointed counsel failed to file an amended motion timely. The extension for one additional period not to exceed thirty days expired on November 23, 1989. Rule 29.15(f). Defendant's second attorney did not file his first amended motion until November 27, 1989, which was four days after the deadline. On that same day, defendant's second counsel also requested and later received an additional sixty days to file a second amended motion. But by this time he had already been granted his one authorized extension and had exceeded this extension as well as the overall sixty day time requirement of Rule 29.15. By granting the request for a second extension of time, the motion court exceeded its jurisdiction because Rule 29.15 clearly states that the court may grant only one extension not to exceed thirty days. Thus, the court had no jurisdiction to rule on defendant's first or second amended motions because they were all filed out of time. The motion court, therefore, should have dismissed the amended motions as untimely and proceeded on the issue of abandonment pursuant to Sanders if there was a request to do so after the dismissal.