Opinion ID: 196445
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Filing By Facsimile.

Text: 19 The appellant posits that the January 7 facsimile transmission satisfied the filing requirements of the Civil Rules, thus stopping the limitations clock. He is whistling past the graveyard. Absent a local rule authorizing the practice, facsimile filings in a federal court are dead on arrival. 20 As of January 7, 1993, the Civil Rules provided in pertinent part: 21 Papers may be filed by facsimile transmission if permitted by rules of the district court, provided that the rules are authorized by and consistent with the standards established by the Judicial Conference of the United States. 22 Fed.R.Civ.P. 5(e). 4 The Judicial Conference has authorized courts, effective December 1, 1991, to adopt local rules to permit the clerk to accept for filing papers transmitted by facsimile transmission equipment, provided that such filing is permitted only (1) in compelling circumstances or (b) under a practice which was established by the court prior to May 1, 1991. Reports of the Proceedings of the Judicial Conference of the U.S. 52-53 (1991). The appellant argues that, since the Conference has authorized this method of transmission, filing by facsimile is permissible. This argument disregards both the realities of the instant situation and the text of Rule 5(e). 23 For one thing, the Conference, at the same time it granted the limited authorization to which we have alluded, warned that the routine acceptance ... of court documents by facsimile would present practical problems and would create an administrative and resource burden to the courts. Id. The facsimile filing here occurred in the most mundane of contexts and was not brought about by any special exigency but by the attorney's nonchalance. Thus, the circumstances are hardly compelling. 24 For another thing, the appellant's argument ignores the plain language of Rule 5(e). Implicit therein is the concept that, absent a local rule authorizing filing by facsimile, such filings are null. See, e.g., In re Hotel Syracuse, Inc., 154 B.R. 13, 17 (N.D.N.Y.1993) (holding that a notice of appeal filed by facsimile, not authorized under any local rule, did not interrupt the progression of the appeal period). The appellant's suggested construction would render the reference to local rules superfluous. Since a court called upon to construe a procedural rule should give effect, whenever possible, to every word and phrase contained in the rule's text, see Jamerson v. Board of Trustees of the Univ. of Ala., 80 F.R.D. 744, 749 (N.D.Ala.1978), see also United States v. Ven-Fuel, Inc., 758 F.2d 741, 751-52 (1st Cir.1985) (explicating similar principle in respect to statutory construction), we decline to follow the appellant's lead. The local rules of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts do not authorize the filing of papers by facsimile. That ends the matter. 25 In this case, moreover, the appellant's facsimile filing is invalid for two other reasons. First, the January 7 transmission was incomplete. Although the notice pleading requirements of the Civil Rules are to be construed liberally, there are bounds to liberality. For purposes of commencing an action, half a complaint--particularly an unsigned half that does not even contain a demand for judgment--is no better than none. 26 Second, the appellant did not send even the partial facsimile transmission until after the close of business on January 7, 1993. Despite the fact that Fed.R.Civ.P. 77(a) states that district courts shall be deemed always open for the purpose of filing any pleading or other proper paper ..., the word filing as used therein is a word of art. It means delivery into the actual custody of the proper officer. Casalduc v. Diaz, 117 F.2d 915, 916 (1st Cir.), cert. denied, 314 U.S. 639, 62 S.Ct. 74, 86 L.Ed. 512 (1941). Consequently, Rule 77(a) has been interpreted uniformly to mean that the clerk's office need not be kept open around the clock, and that, outside of ordinary business hours, merely leaving papers in a closed or vacant office does not constitute filing sufficient for commencement of an action. 5 See Greenwood v. State of N.Y. Office of Mental Health, 842 F.2d 636, 639 (2d Cir.1988); Casalduc, 117 F.2d at 916; see also 12 Charles A. Wright & Arthur R. Miller, Federal Practice and Procedure Sec. 3081, at 179 (1990).B. Filing By Mailing. 27 The appellant argues that the complaint should be deemed to have been filed on January 7, 1993, because it was mailed on that date. This is a hard sell; as the appellant acknowledges, the Civil Rules do not so provide, and the proposition that he hawks therefore rises or falls on the strength of his thesis that the district court should have followed state practice. The proposition falls. 28 Mass.R.Civ.P. 3 permits the commencement of an action either by filing the complaint (and the concomitant fee) with the clerk of the appropriate court or by mailing the complaint and fee to the clerk by certified or registered mail. Thus, if the appellant had elected to sue in the state court--and state courts have concurrent jurisdiction in suits brought under section 1983, see Maine v. Thiboutot, 448 U.S. 1, 3 n. 1, 100 S.Ct. 2502, 2503 n. 1, 65 L.Ed.2d 555 (1980)--mailing the complaint would have sufficed (if barely) to eclipse the looming temporal bar. The appellant made a different election, however, choosing to invoke the district court's arising under jurisdiction, see 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1331, and to bring suit in a federal venue. Therefore, federal rather than state procedural rules govern. See Hanna v. Plumer, 380 U.S. 460, 470-71, 85 S.Ct. 1136, 1143-44, 14 L.Ed.2d 8 (1965). 29 The appellant suggests two reasons why this case does not come within Hanna 's sphere of influence. First, he tells us that using the state procedural rule is fitting because the federal question arises under section 1983 and, therefore, the district court must borrow the appropriate statute of limitations from state law. See Wilson, 471 U.S. at 276-80, 105 S.Ct. at 1947-49. But this is a distinction bereft of a meaningful difference. 30 The borrowing directive means no more than it says. [W]hen it is necessary for a federal court to borrow a statute of limitations for a federal cause of action, [the court should] borrow no more than necessary. West v. Conrail, 481 U.S. 35, 39, 107 S.Ct. 1538, 1541, 95 L.Ed.2d 32 (1987). Moreover, when a federal court borrows a limitation period from state law for use in implementing a federal law that does not possess a self-contained statute of limitations, the court is nonetheless applying federal law. The federal court looks to state law for guidance, but it does so simply because the creation of a statute of limitations is not considered a suitable judicial task. Hemmings v. Barian, 822 F.2d 688, 689 (7th Cir.1987). The mantra, then, is that when bridging interstices in federal law, federal courts should borrow only what is necessary to close the gap left by Congress. West, 481 U.S. at 40 n. 6, 107 S.Ct. at 1541 n. 6. 31 Beyond the need to borrow a limitation period simpliciter, the case at hand presents no occasion for resort to state law. In the wake of West, federal courts consistently have held that questions concerning the commencement of a section 1983 action in a federal court are governed by Fed.R.Civ.P. 3. See, e.g., Martin v. Demma, 831 F.2d 69, 71 (5th Cir.1987); Del Raine v. Carlson, 826 F.2d 698, 706-07 (7th Cir.1987). Rule 3 is complete on its face. The appellant has identified no lacuna that must be filled by reference to state law, and none is visible to us. 32 The seamlessness of Rule 3, and its fit with other federal procedural rules, defeats the appellant's claim. Rule 3 adequately covers the mechanics of commencing an action in a federal district court, and the rule makes it transpicuously clear that an action is commenced when the papers are filed. In turn, Fed.R.Civ.P. 5(e) defines filing, for all intents and purposes, as filing ... with the clerk of the court. 6 The commencement construct created by the Civil Rules is complete and self-contained, and leaves no room for improvisation. Under the construct, the instant complaint was not effectively filed until January 8, 1993, and, therefore, the underlying action was not commenced within the limitation period. When papers are mailed to the clerk's office, filing is complete only upon the clerk's receipt of them. See Cooper v. City of Ashland, 871 F.2d 104, 105 (9th Cir.1989) (per curiam); see also Torras Herreria v. M/V Timur Star, 803 F.2d 215, 216 (6th Cir.1986) (Filings reaching the clerk's office after a deadline are untimely, even if mailed before the deadline.). 33 In a last-ditch effort to forestall the inevitable, the appellant insists that the animating principle of Guaranty Trust Co. v. York, 326 U.S. 99, 109-12, 65 S.Ct. 1464, 1469-71, 89 L.Ed. 2079 (1945), requires that we look to the state procedural rule since establishing a time line will determine the outcome of the litigation. This argument will not wash. 34 A meaningful discourse on the applicability of federal procedural rules in federal courts cannot begin and end with York. In Hanna (a case decided subsequent to York ), the Supreme Court focused specifically on the purview of the Civil Rules and noted that  'outcome-determination' analysis was never intended to serve as a talisman. Hanna, 380 U.S. at 467, 85 S.Ct. at 1141 (citing Byrd v. Blue Ridge Rural Elec. Coop., Inc., 356 U.S. 525, 537, 78 S.Ct. 893, 900, 2 L.Ed.2d 953 (1958)). Even in a diversity case (where state law supplies the basis for decision), the correct inquiry is not whether the choice between federal and state procedural rules will prove outcome determinative, but whether a federal rule exists that covers the point in dispute. If it does, it must be applied. See id. 380 U.S. at 469-74, 85 S.Ct. at 1142-45. Put another way, when federal and state procedural rules collide, the federal rule necessarily trumps the state rule in a federal forum. 7 See id.; accord Aceves v. Allstate Ins. Co., 68 F.3d 1160, 1167 (9th Cir.1995); Cutting v. Town of Allenstown, 936 F.2d 18, 21 (1st Cir.1991); Frechette v. Welch, 621 F.2d 11, 13-14 (1st Cir.1980). As the Court wrote in Hanna, to hold that a Federal Rule of Civil Procedure must cease to function whenever it alters the mode of enforcing state-created rights would be to disembowel either the Constitution's grant of power over federal procedure or Congress' attempt to exercise that power.... 380 U.S. at 473-74, 85 S.Ct. at 1145-46. There is even less basis for charting so drastic a course where, as here, the right at issue is created under federal rather than state law. 35 To recapitulate, the general rule is that merely placing a complaint in the mail does not constitute filing sufficient to mark the commencement of an action in a federal court. This case falls squarely within the maw of the general rule. It follows inexorably that the appellant did not seasonably commence his suit by mailing the complaint to the clerk's office on January 7, 1990. 36 C. Miscellaneous Arguments. 37 We have considered all the appellant's remaining arguments and find them to be unpersuasive. Only three of them require any comment. 38 1. The Failure to Grant a Third Extension. The district court allowed the appellant two extensions of time within which to oppose the defendants' motion for summary judgment, but balked the third time around. The appellant assigns error. We discern none. 39 The administration of filing deadlines is a matter of case management that comes within the district court's discretion. See Mendez v. Banco Popular de P.R., 900 F.2d 4, 6 (1st Cir.1990); see also Fed.R.Civ.P. 6(b). Litigants cannot expect that courts will dance to their every tune, granting extensions on demand to suit lawyers' schedules. Given the district court's generosity in granting two extensions, and the weakness of the excuse proffered by the appellant's attorney in seeking yet another boon, 8 we see no hint of any arbitrariness in the court's exasperated denial of the third extension. 9 See Harlow Fay, Inc. v. Federal Land Bank, 993 F.2d 1351, 1352 (8th Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 114 S.Ct. 87, 126 L.Ed.2d 55 (1993); Mendez, 900 F.2d at 7; Baker v. Raulie, 879 F.2d 1396, 1399 (6th Cir.1989); Clinkscales v. Chevron U.S.A., Inc., 831 F.2d 1565, 1569 (11th Cir.1987). 40 2. Waiver. The appellant asserts that, by failing to move for judgment on the limitations defense earlier in the proceedings, the defendants waived it. This assertion has no foothold in the law. The defendants raised the affirmative defense in a timeous manner by including it in their answer. See Fed.R.Civ.P. 8(c), 12(b)(6), 12(h)(2). They were under no obligation to do more. Once a defendant timely raises a limitations defense in his answer, the issue remains in the case until it is deleted from the pleadings or resolved by the court. See Pessotti v. Eagle Mfg. Co., 946 F.2d 974, 979 (1st Cir.1991). There is no inequity in this rule; if the plaintiff desires to force an up-or-down decision on the asserted defense in the early stages of the case, he has the power to bring it to the forefront. See Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(c)-(d). 10 Here, the appellant could have seized the opportunity but chose not to do so. As a result, it does not lie in his mouth to complain of the defense's alleged laggardness. 41 3. Disability. The appellant, in what seems to be an afterthought, 11 suggests that he may have been under a disability, and, therefore, the limitation period should be tolled. On this record, the notion of any cognizable disability is pure conjecture. In any event, we have regularly held that [i]ssues adverted to on appeal in a perfunctory manner, unaccompanied by some developed argumentation, are deemed to have been abandoned. Ryan v. Royal Ins. Co. of Am., 916 F.2d 731, 734 (1st Cir.1990).