Court Opinion

ID: 9473223
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 04:23:20.313387+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:43:23.822375
License: Public Domain

NORRIS, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
I dissent because, unlike the majority, I would treat Clorox’s petition for a writ of mandamus as a notice of appeal, thus emphasizing substance over form. Clorox filed its writ while Pelleport Investors, Inc. v. Budco Quality Theatres, Inc., 741 F.2d 273 (9th Cir.1984), was still pending. When Clorox filed its petition, therefore, it was not unreasonable for petitioner to believe the district court’s remand order was reviewable only by mandamus, not by direct appeal. After Pelleport, however, it is clear that the remand order is reviewable by a direct appeal. Since Pelleport arguably changed the law of the Circuit and it was decided after it was too late for Clorox to file a direct appeal, I think denying Clorox’s petition for a writ of mandamus is an unnecessarily harsh result.
Contrary to the view of the majority, I believe we do have the authority to construe the petition as a notice of appeal. It is well settled that this Circuit adheres to the liberal rule by which “courts of appeals *702have discretion, when the interests of substantive justice require it, to disregard irregularities in the form or procedure for filing a notice of appeal.” Cel-A-Pak v. California Agricultural Labor Relations Board, 680 F.2d 664, 667 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 459 U.S. 1071, 103 S.Ct. 491, 74 L.Ed.2d 633 (1982), (quoting Rabin v. Cohen, 570 F.2d 864, 866 (9th Cir.1978)). The rule has been stated as follows:
[Documents] which are not denominated notices of appeal will be so treated when they serve the essential purpose of showing that the party intended to appeal, are served upon the other parties to the litigation, and are filed in court within the time period otherwise provided by Rule 4(a).
Rabin, 570 F.2d at 866.
In Diamond v. United States District Court, 661 F.2d 1198 (9th Cir.1981), the court found that an order denying a motion to file a late notice of appeal was appeala-ble under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 and that direct appeal, and not mandamus, was the proper means of obtaining review. Id. at 1198. The court stated:
We could, of course, construe petitioner’s mandamus petition as a notice of appeal, and would, under the circumstances, ordinarily do so____ [W]ere we to construe the mandamus petition as a notice of appeal, the notice would not now be timely. For that reason, we decline to do so.
Id. at 1198-99. Although the language in Diamond is dicta, it is strong dicta for the proposition that we can construe a mandamus petition as a notice of appeal.1 There is also authority for the converse: that we can treat a notice of appeal as a petition for a writ of mandamus. Unified Sewerage Agency v. Jelco, 646 F.2d 1339, 1343 (9th Cir.1981). I see no reason why the law of the circuit should be that we have authority to construe a notice of appeal as a petition for mandamus but cannot, under appropriate circumstances, construe a writ of mandamus as a notice of appeal.
Our court has construed a variety of documents as a notice of appeal. See, e.g., Noa v. Key Futures, Inc., 638 F.2d 77, 78 (9th Cir.1980) (stipulation to the entry of a new judgment an effective notice of appeal); Rabin v. Cohen, 570 F.2d 864, 867 (9th Cir.1978) (stipulation and motion requesting that record and briefs be transferred to new appeal a timely notice); Curtis Gallery and Library, Inc. v. United States, 388 F.2d 358, 360 (9th Cir.1967) (appellant’s designation of record and statement of points on appeal construed as equivalent of notice of appeal).
Finally, other circuits have also construed a writ of mandamus as a notice of appeal. See, e.g., Yates v. Mobil Country Personnel Board, 658 F.2d 298, 299 (5th Cir.1981) (“A petition for mandamus filed in this court, however, may also satisfy the notice of appeal requirement____”); United States v. RMI Co., 599 F.2d 1183, 1187 (3d Cir.1979) (“[T]here are no finality considerations militating against treating a petition for mandamus as the equivalent of a notice of appeal.”); United States v. Green, 499 F.2d 538, 540 (D.C.Cir.1974) (“[T]he petitions for mandamus are treatable as notices of appeal.”); Strauss v. Smith, 417 F.2d 132, 133 (7th Cir.1969) (“[T]he mandamus was construed as an appeal____”).
When, as here, a party has made a statement that clearly evinces its intent to appeal and such a statement accomplishes the two basic objectives of the Rule 3 requirement — to notify the court of the appeal and to notify the opposing party of the taking of the appeal — I think we can and should construe that statement as a notice of appeal. See Cel-A-Pak, 680 F.2d at 667.

. The Second Circuit has interpreted Diamond as standing for the proposition that a "court may treat mandamus petition as notice of appeal under some circumstances.” In re “Agent Orange" Product Liability Litigation, 745 F.2d 161, 163 n. 1 (2d Cir.1984).