Court Opinion

ID: 9713193
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 05:10:38.903823+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:17.438535
License: Public Domain

Mr. JUSTICE CRAVEN, dissenting: I dissent. The majority opinion says the appeal was not timely filed. The statute says that “mailing * * * shall constitute service.” No problem there. (Prairie Vista.) But should we presume that a letter or notice of final order was mailed on the date that the letter or the order bears? Prairie Vista supplies no answer to that problem. When, as here, the order of the Commission is reviewable only if a notice of appeal is filed yrithin 30 days of the date of mailing of the certificate and we require the appealing party to strictly comply with all statutory provisions, it is neither unreasonable nor undesirable to require the Commission to establish the date of mailing. Indeed we should do so before we dismiss the appeal as untimely. Stated otherwise, how is it that we dismiss an appeal as not filed within 30 days of mailing when we do not know, nor does the movant tell us, the date of mailing? Neither human experience nor familiarity with governmental habits persuades me that all official documents are mailed on the date that they are typed. Unfortunately the majority cannot guarantee that the facts would jibe with the presumption they create. Until such time, however, as the presumption becomes reality, we should not toss cases out of the judicial system based upon presumed dates.