Court Opinion

ID: 9549004
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 18:11:53.491092+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:19:43.777409
License: Public Domain

STEWART, Justice,
dissenting:
I respectfully submit that the notice of appeal should be deemed timely filed in this case. Counsel acted prudently in attempting to effectuate a timely filing of a notice of appeal in accordance with our rules of procedure. The reason the notice was not actually filed with the court in the time prescribed by the rules was either because of the delay in the delivery of mail or because of the failure of the clerk to file the notice promptly upon receipt.1 In either event, the fault was not the appellant’s. Indeed the appellant had the right to rely on the mail’s being delivered in time and on timely filing by the clerk.
Under the circumstances, I see no substantial reason to deny the appellant the right to appeal. There is no prejudice to *852any party involved. There was a good faith and reasonable effort to comply with the specific rules governing the filing of a notice of appeal. I think a clear-cut good faith effort to meet the one-month filing date ought to be sufficient since there is no overriding public policy that requires a technical and rote compliance with the rule irrespective of the sacrifice of substantial and important substantive rights.
In similar factual circumstances, courts have held that reliance on the normal delivery of the mail to effectuate the filing of a notice of appeal is sufficient to override the effect of a delay in the mail resulting in a filing of an appeal beyond the due date under federal appellate practice. Sanchez v. Board of Regents, 625 F.2d 521 (5th Cir.1980). Aldabe v. Aldabe, 616 F.2d 1089 (9th Cir.1980), held that, since an appellant has no control over delays between receipt by the clerk’s office and the filing in the docket, an appeal initiated within the thirty days after the entry of the order appealed from and which was received by the district court within the thirty days but not filed until after thirty days constituted a timely filing. See also United States v. Solly, 545 F.2d 874 (3rd Cir.1976). And in United States v. Nunley, 369 F.Supp. 171 (D.C. Tenn.1973), the court held in a criminal case that a notice of appeal mailed on the seventh day of a ten-day appeal period and received by the clerk of the court after the ten-day appeal period had expired was deemed timely and ordered filed nunc pro tunc as of the date of mailing.
The necessary consequence of the majority’s position is that an attorney who resides in one part of the state and who must file a notice of appeal in another part of the state remote to where he resides must make a long trip to assure the prompt filing of a notice of appeal if he has not been able to file the notice until near the end of the one-month period permitted by the rules. I see no good reason for imposing such an onerous burden on attorneys. It is not consonant with the fundamental principle that the rules of procedure should be construed “to secure the fast, speedy and inexpensive determination of every action.” Rule 1(a), Utah R.Civ.P.

. The notice of appeal, certificate of ordering manuscript, notice of furnishing appeal bond, and designation of record on appeal were all dated December 10, 1981. The certificates of service of each document were also signed December 10, 1981. The due date for the notice of appeal was December 13, 1981.