Opinion ID: 686375
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: jurisdiction

Text: 6 The filing of a notice of appeal within the time periods prescribed by rule or statute is mandatory and jurisdictional. Browder v. Director, Dep't of Corrections, 434 U.S. 257, 264 (1978). Fed. R.App. P. 3(a) provides: An appeal permitted by law as of right ... shall be taken by filing a notice of appeal with the clerk of the district court within the time allowed by Rule 4. Fed. R.App. P. 4(b) provides that [i]n a criminal case, a defendant shall file the notice of appeal in the district court within 10 days after the entry ... of judgment. The rule further provides that the district court may extend the period for filing for thirty days upon a showing of excusable neglect. 7 Yocum's filing in the district court was one day late. The government urges us to remand this matter to the district court for a determination of excusable neglect. However, in a case such as this, involving a mistakenly directed filing which was timely in its first receipt, an excusable neglect determination is not necessary. Thus, we have previously construed a notice of appeal which was incorrectly directed to the district court judge within the ten-day period to satisfy the requirement of filing with the clerk of the court. Haflen v. United States, 324 F.2d 52, 54 (10th Cir.1963). More recently we have construed a pleading filed with this court within the ten-day period to be the functional equivalent of a notice of appeal. See United States v. Gundersen, 978 F.2d 580, 583-84 (10th Cir.1992). 8 Additionally, we note that Fed R.App. P. 4(a)(1) specifically addresses the treatment of a misdirected notice of appeal in the context of civil appeals: 9 If a notice of appeal is mistakenly filed in the court of appeals, the clerk of the court of appeals shall note thereon the date when the clerk received the notice and send it to the clerk of the district court and the notice will be treated as filed in the district court on the date so noted. 10 Fed. R.App. P. 4(a)(1). 11 Although Rule 4(a)(1) is not specifically applicable to criminal cases, given our precedent, we deem Yocum's appeal as timely filed in the district court on the date it was received by the appeals court clerk.