Court Opinion

ID: 9495571
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 16:06:05.549476+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:57:05.833391
License: Public Domain

WALLACE, Senior Circuit Judge,
concurring:
I reluctantly concur with the majority that Jorss’ petition was equitably tolled and thus not time-barred as compelled by Tillema v. Long, 253 F.3d 494 (9th Cir.2001) (en banc). I disagree, however, with the majority’s conclusion that the issue of statutory tolling is necessarily contained within the issue of equitable tolling, the only issue presented by the certificate of appealability (COA). I also question the majority’s power to reach the issue of statutory tolling sua sponte.
The district court granted a COA on the issue of whether equitable tolling will save Jorss’ habeas corpus petition. A court of appeals may not reach issues not contained within the COA. Hiivala v. Wood, 195 F.3d 1098, 1103 (9th Cir.1999) (per curiam) (‘We hold that 28 U.S.C. § 2253(c)(3) limits the issues that may be considered on appeal to those specified in a COA”), cert. denied, 529 U.S. 1009, 120 S.Ct. 1281, 146 L.Ed.2d 228 (2000); accord Beaty v. Stewart, 303 F.3d 975, 984 (9th Cir.2002) (“Courts of Appeals lack jurisdiction to resolve the merits of any claim for which a COA is not granted”); United States v. Christakis, 238 F.3d 1164, 1168, n. 4 (9th Cir.2001).
Despite the clear meaning of Hiivala and our subsequent cases, some of our opinions have decided issues that do not appear in the face of. the COA so long as they are clearly comprehended within the certified issue. Tillema, 253 F.3d at 502 n. 11; Jones v. Smith, 231 F.3d 1227, 1231 (9th Cir.2000). That is, these decisions hold that the court of appeals may consider an issue not certified if it is necessary to answer the issue presented by the COA. Tillema, 253 F.3d at 502, n. 11 (court of appeals may consider the meaning of “pertinent judgment or claim” when the district court certified the question of whether the habeas petition was timely); Jones, 231 F.3d at 1231(court of appeals may consider whether the claim was exhausted when the district court certified the merits of petitioner’s habeas claim). Under this fine of cases, the question becomes: is the issue of statutory tolling clearly comprehended within the issue of equitable tolling?
We answered this precise question in Miles v. Prunty, 187 F.3d 1104, 1107 n. 2 (1999). In Miles, as here, the COA was limited to the issue of equitable tolling. In Miles, as here, we would have held that the petition would be deemed timely because of statutory tolling. But Miles, unlike the majority, wisely recognized that section 2253 prevented the court from reaching the issue. Id. at 1106 n. 2. Instead, it squarely answered the certified issue of equitable tolling. Id. at 1107. Miles demonstrates that statutory tolling is not clearly comprehended within the issue of equitable tolling. Stare decisis would mandate the majority not reaching the question of statutory tolling.
*1194To the contrary, the majority argues that “a court must first determine whether a petition was untimely under the statute itself before it considers whether equitable tolling should be applied.” [Maj. Op. at 1192] If a petition is timely filed within the one-year statute of limitations, the majority concludes that equitable tolling does not apply. [Id.] Thus, the majority states that the question of statutory tolling is clearly comprehended within the issue of equitable tolling.
I disagree. Equitable tolling is not some sort of exception that applies once the action is time-barred. Instead, equitable tolling does what its name suggests: it tolls the statute of limitations to demonstrate that the action was never time-barred to begin with. Therefore, a claim may be equitably tolled even if the limitation period has not statutorily run. The issue of statutory tolling is not clearly contained within the issue of equitable tolling, and the majority’s reaching beyond issues stated in the COA is improper.
It may be that addressing the issue of statutory tolling is warranted in these circumstances, because Bunney v. Mitchell, 262 F.3d 973, 974 (9th Cir.2001), was issued January 10, 2001, while the COA was filed September 1, 1999, more than sixteen months earlier. However, before establishing such a dubious exception to the rule of Hiivala and Miles, the majority should first determine whether Jorss’ petition may be equitably tolled, as the COA inquires, in case any decision on the scope or effect of the COA is unnecessary. Here, it is.
We normally apply equitable tolling when “extraordinary circumstances beyond the petitioner’s control ... [make] it impossible to file a timely federal habeas petition.” Fail v. Hubbard, 272 F.3d 1133, 1135-36 (9th Cir.2001). Tillema, 253 F.3d at 503, applied equitable tolling to a situation that is similar to the one we face here: a petitioner’s first timely filed federal ha-beas petition was dismissed as unexhaust-ed after the one-year period had expired, and the petitioner was given no opportunity to amend his petition to abandon the unexhausted claims. While I doubt the soundness of Tillema, I can see no meaningful difference between it and the case we now decide. I am bound by it and must concur in the result reached by the majority.