Nolan v. Wynder

363 F. App'x 868
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Third Circuit
DecidedJanuary 27, 2010
DocketNo. 07-4063
StatusPublished

This text of 363 F. App'x 868 (Nolan v. Wynder) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Nolan v. Wynder, 363 F. App'x 868 (3d Cir. 2010).

Opinion

OPINION

BARRY, Circuit Judge.

On June 12, 2008, we granted a certificate of appealability to William J. Nolan permitting him to appeal two aspects of the District Court’s denial of his habeas petition. For the following reasons, we will affirm in part and vacate in part and remand for further proceedings consistent with this Opinion.

I.

Because we write solely for the parties’ benefit, we set forth only those facts necessary to our analysis.

In 1991, Nolan was arrested and charged with numerous car thefts in both Lackawanna and Luzerne Counties, Pennsylvania. He pled guilty to the Lackawan-na County charges, including nine counts of receiving stolen property and one count [870]*870of theft by deception, and was sentenced to ten consecutive sentences of imprisonment totaling thirty to sixty years. The Lacka-wanna County convictions are not at issue in this appeal. With respect to the Lu-zerne County charges, a jury convicted Nolan of six counts of theft by unlawful taking and five counts of receiving stolen property. He was sentenced to an aggregate of twenty-one to forty-two years imprisonment.

Following his direct appeal of the Lu-zerne County convictions, Nolan filed a petition for post-conviction relief under 42 Pa. Cons.Stat. Ann. § 9541, et seq. That petition, filed in 1999, enumerated twenty-one claims, spawning a lengthy and complex procedural history. We, however, will address only the procedural events relevant to our analysis.

The Court of Common Pleas (“PCRA Court”) initially dismissed Nolan’s petition for post-conviction relief. In 2000, Nolan appealed that dismissal to the Superior Court. In his brief to the Superior Court, Nolan included a three-page statement of questions involved, thus violating Pennsylvania Rule of Appellate Procedure 2116(a) (“Rule 2116(a)”), which, at the time, required that a petitioner’s statement of questions involved “must never exceed one page.”1 The Superior Court, after addressing only an ineffective assistance of counsel claim related to Nolan’s double jeopardy and compulsory joinder arguments, remanded the case to the PCRA Court, instructing the PCRA court to vacate the judgment of sentence and dismiss the Luzerne County charges. See Commonwealth v. Nolan, 788 A.2d 1032 (Pa.Super. Ct.2001).

The Commonwealth appealed to the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, which reversed. See Commonwealth v. Nolan, 579 Pa. 300, 855 A.2d 834 (2004). The Supreme Court remanded the matter to the Superior Court, directing the Superior Court “to consider the issues raised by [Nolan] ... that were not addressed in its [prior] opinion.” (App.41.) The Superior Court, in turn, remanded the matter to the PCRA Court, instructing the PCRA Court to consider only four claims raised by Nolan — the four having been enumerated on the first page of Nolan’s statement of questions involved. That limitation was placed on the PCRA Court because of Nolan’s failure to comport his brief on appeal to the Superior Court in 2000 to the requirements of Rule 2116(a).

On remand, the PCRA Court concluded that the petition should be denied and dismissed. The Superior Court affirmed, addressing the merits of only the four claims it had remanded and holding that the balance of Nolan’s claims were waived due to his failure to comply with Rule 2116(a). The Supreme Court denied Nolan’s petition for allowance of appeal. Commonwealth v. Nolan, 591 Pa. 681, 917 A.2d 313 (2007).

In 2007, Nolan filed this petition for a federal writ of habeas corpus, raising twenty claims. The District Court first held that Claims III through VI (the claims addressed on remand by the PCRA Court and the Superior Court) were addressed on the merits by the state court and that the state court’s adjudications were neither contrary to established federal law nor involved an unreasonable determination of the facts. The Court then found that Claim I did not involve a federal constitutional claim and, accordingly, was not cognizable on habeas review. As [871]*871for Claims VII through XXI (there was no Claim XIX), the Court concluded that they were procedurally defaulted due to Nolan’s failure to adequately present them to the Superior Court in accordance with Rule 2116(a). Finally, the Court found that the state court did not adjudicate Claim II in a manner that was contrary to clearly established federal law or involved an unreasonable determination of the facts.

On June 12, 2008, we granted a certificate of appealability limited to two questions: (1) whether the District Court properly concluded that Claims VII through XXI were procedurally defaulted; and (2) whether the District Court correctly applied the precepts of Brady v. Maryland, 378 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963) to Claim III.

II.

We exercise plenary review of the decision of the District Court denying, without an evidentiary hearing, Nolan’s habeas petition. Thomas v. Horn, 570 F.3d 105, 113 (3d Cir.2009). The District Court had jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 2241 and 2254, and we have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 1291 and 2253.

A.

“A federal habeas court will not review a claim rejected by a state court if the decision of [the state] court rests on a state law ground that is independent of the federal question and adequate to support the- judgment.” Beard v. Kindler, - U.S. -, 130 S.Ct. 612, 614, — L.Ed.2d - (2009) (alteration in original; quotation omitted).

A state rule is adequate only if it is consistently and regularly applied. While the state rule should be applied evenhandedly to all similar claims, state courts only need demonstrate that in the vast majority of cases, the rule is applied in a consistent and regular manner.

Doctor v. Walters, 96 F.3d 675, 684 (3d Cir.1996) (quotations and citations omitted). Put simply, “[a] procedural rule is adequate only if it is firmly established, readily ascertainable, and regularly fol-loived.” Szuchon v. Lehman, 273 F.3d 299, 325 (3d Cir.2001) (emphasis added). Furthermore, “[t]hese conditions must have existed at the time of the state court procedural default,” Cabrera v. Barbo, 175 F.3d 307, 313 (3d Cir.1999), here, 2000, when Nolan filed his allegedly procedurally infirm appeal from the denial of post-conviction relief with the Superior Court.

At the time Nolan filed brief with the Superior Court in 2000, Rule 2116(a) provided that:

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Related

Beard v. Kindler
558 U.S. 53 (Supreme Court, 2009)
Brady v. Maryland
373 U.S. 83 (Supreme Court, 1963)
Gary Lee Doctor v. Gilbert A. Walters
96 F.3d 675 (Third Circuit, 1996)
Szuchon v. Lehman
273 F.3d 299 (Third Circuit, 2001)
Thomas v. Horn
570 F.3d 105 (Third Circuit, 2009)
Estate of Lakatosh
656 A.2d 1378 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1995)
Brown v. Philadelphia Tribune Co.
668 A.2d 159 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1995)
Conner v. Quality Coach, Inc.
724 A.2d 379 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1999)
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750 A.2d 823 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 2000)
Ruotolo v. Tietjen
916 A.2d 1 (Supreme Court of Connecticut, 2007)
Universal Underwriters Insurance v. A. Richard Kacin, Inc.
916 A.2d 686 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2007)
Commonwealth v. Stafford
749 A.2d 489 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2000)
Commonwealth v. Nolan
855 A.2d 834 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 2004)
Com. v. Nolan
917 A.2d 313 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 2007)
Sell v. Sell
714 A.2d 1057 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1998)

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363 F. App'x 868, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/nolan-v-wynder-ca3-2010.