Court Opinion

ID: 9545198
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 17:08:16.663705+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:14:18.732466
License: Public Domain

STRUCKMEYER, Vice Chief Justice,
dissenting.
On April 11, 1977, petitioner’s motion in the Superior Court for a rehearing under Rule 32 was denied. By Rule 32.9(c), a petition for review in an appellate court of a denial of a request for post-conviction relief must be filed within ten days after the denial of the motion for rehearing. Petitioner did not file his motion for review within ten days; rather, he filed it four days late on April 25,1977. This Court said in State v. Gause, 112 Ariz. 296, 541 P.2d 396 (1975), cert, denied 425 U.S. 915, 96 S.Ct. 1515, 47 L.Ed.2d 766:
“In pursuing post-conviction remedies, petitioner is limited to procedures set forth in the rule.” 112 Ariz. at 297, 541 P.2d at 397.
Petitioner, however, attempts to justify his failure to comply with Rule 32.9(c) by pointing to Rule 1.3. Rule 1.3 permits a party five additional days where “service is allowed and made by mail.”
I would have assumed that few things would be less subject to confusion than the term “service by mail.” Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged, defines “mail” as “2a: the bags of letters and the other postal matter conveyed under public authority from one post office to another.”
“The word ‘mailing’ means placing a letter or parcel in an appropriate mail receptacle maintained by the post office department, properly addressed, with postage prepaid. Satterfield v. Celebrezze (W.D.S.C.), 244 P.Supp. 190; Raptis v. Safeguard Insurance Company, 13 Mich.App. 193, 163 N.W.2d 835; 72 C.J.S. Post Office § 26, page 299; 26 Words and Phrases, pages 55 and 56; Black’s Law Dictionary, Revised Fourth Edition, page 1104.” Barrett v. Eastern Iowa Community College District, 221 N.W.2d 781, 783 (Iowa 1974).
The word “service” is defined by Webster as “15a: the act of bringing a legal writ, process, or summons to notice actually or constructively as prescribed by law.” The words “service by mail” simply mean “notification by mail.” Hence, while service by placing in a box in the clerk’s office at the *538courthouse may well be notification under the local practice in Flagstaff, Arizona, it can by no stretch of the imagination be considered service by mail.
I do not acquiesce in the amendment of the Rules of this Court by judicial tinkering. Common English words should mean what they have always meant, not what a majority of the members of this Court from time to time decide they want them to mean. The public, the profession, and the courts deserve better. The action of the Court of Appeals in dismissing the appeal as untimely was correct.