Opinion ID: 771084
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: The Application of the Due Diligence Requirement

Text: 43 In this case, Iavorski failed as a matter of law to exercise the requisite due diligence during the period of nearly two years he seeks to toll. Iavorski claims that in the first few days after his March 7, 1996 deportation hearing and his attorney's promise to appeal, Iavorski made several attempts to reach his attorney. Iavorski states that he was unsuccessful because his attorney moved his office, apparently without leaving a forwarding address or telephone number. (A 49) 44 According to the record, after these few initial calls, Iavorski made no further attempt to investigate the status of his appeal until May 15, 1998, when the INS received his Freedom of Information Act request. Even at this late date, his request did not appear to have been motivated by an interest in pursuing his rights under his original applications for asylum or withholding of deportation but rather out of interest in the Diversity Visa Program. 45 Given that Iavorski had been unsuccessful in reaching his attorney directly after his deportation hearing, learned that his attorney had moved and could not be reached, that Iavorski never paid the $1,000 fee his attorney originally requested for filing the appeal, and at some point learned that his attorney no longer practiced law, it is reasonable to assume that Iavorski should have known that he had been a victim of ineffective assistance of counsel well before the end of the two-year period he seeks to toll. For this reason, Iavorski cannot demonstrate, as a matter of law, that he demonstrated the diligence required to toll his filing deadline for motions to reopen for nearly two years. Iavorski's second motion to the BIA fails for substantially the same reason. 46 Although the BIA did not address the issue of equitable tolling and therefore did not make a finding regarding due diligence, we may affirm the BIA's denial of the motion to reopen on grounds not stated in the decision if we are certain, given the facts, as to how the BIA would have resolved this issue. See Osmani v. INS, 14 F.3d 13, 15 (7th Cir. 1994); Time, Inc. v. United States Postal Serv., 667 F.2d 329, 333-34 (2d Cir. 1981). Even accepting all of Iavorski's factual allegations as true concerning his claim of ineffective assistance of counsel, as a matter of law, he could not avail himself of equitable tolling because he failed to exhibit the requisite due diligence.