People Ex Rel. Smama

172 P.3d 958, 2007 WL 3025494
CourtColorado Court of Appeals
DecidedOctober 18, 2007
Docket07CA0933
StatusPublished

This text of 172 P.3d 958 (People Ex Rel. Smama) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Colorado Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People Ex Rel. Smama, 172 P.3d 958, 2007 WL 3025494 (Colo. Ct. App. 2007).

Opinion

172 P.3d 958 (2007)

The PEOPLE of the State of Colorado, In the Interest of S.M.A.M.A., a Child,
Upon the Petition of the Denver Department of Human Services, Petitioner-Appellee, and
Concerning D.A.N., Respondent-Appellant.

No. 07CA0933.

Colorado Court of Appeals, Div. A.

October 18, 2007.

*959 Arlene Dykstra, Acting City Attorney, Laura Grzetic Eibsen, Assistant City Attorney, Denver, Colorado, for Petitioner-Appellee.

Terry Ross, Denver, Colorado, for Respondent-Appellant.

Opinion by Chief Judge DAVIDSON.

D.A.N. (mother) appeals from the judgment terminating the parent-child legal relationship between her and her child, S.M.A.M.A. We affirm.

I.

We first address whether mother's notice of appeal was timely filed, and conclude that it was.

The appellant in a dependency and neglect proceeding has twenty-one days within which to file a notice of appeal from a termination order. C.A.R. 3.4(b); see also People in Interest of A.J., 143 P.3d 1143, 1146 (Colo. App.2006); People in Interest of A.J.H., 134 P.3d 528, 530 (Colo.App.2006). When notice of entry of the order is mailed to the parties, the time for filing the notice of appeal begins to run on the date of mailing. C.A.R. 3.4(b).

Here, the trial court entered the written order terminating mother's parental rights on April 13, 2007. On April 25, 2007, the court mailed the order to mother and also deposited it, "via daily delivery by the Child Protection Legal Unit court Liaison," in her attorney's courthouse mailbox located in the Denver Juvenile Court clerk's office.

Because she did not file her notice of appeal until May 17, 2007, twenty-two days after the order was deposited in her attorney's courthouse mailbox, this court issued an order to show cause why the appeal should not be dismissed for failure to file a timely notice of appeal. See A.J., 143 P.3d at 1146 ("Unless a notice of appeal is timely filed, the court of appeals lacks jurisdiction to hear the appeal."); A.J.H., 134 P.3d at 530. In response, mother argued that service to an attorney's courthouse mailbox constitutes service by mail and, therefore, three days must be added to the time in which to file the notice of appeal pursuant to C.R.C.P. 6(e).

The issue was deferred to this division to resolve whether the three-day mailing rule applies to the computation of time in which to file a notice of appeal pursuant to C.A.R. 3.4, and whether mother's notice of appeal was timely filed.

A. Service by Delivery of the Order to Mother's Attorney's Courthouse Mailbox Constitutes Service by Mail for Purposes of the Three-Day Mailing Rule

In determining the meaning of procedural rules such as the Colorado Rules of Juvenile, Civil, and Appellate Procedure, we give the words of the rules their plain meaning *960 and read all the rules in pari materia to effectuate their intent and avoid inconsistencies. A.J.H., 134 P.3d at 531.

Dependency and neglect proceedings are civil in nature, and the Colorado Rules of Civil Procedure apply in such proceedings when a particular procedure is not addressed in the Colorado Children's Code or the Colorado Rules of Juvenile Procedure. C.R.J.P. 1; People in Interest of Z.P., 167 P.3d 211, 214 (Colo.App.2007).

Because neither the Code nor the Juvenile Rules address the method by which a trial court may serve orders on parties in dependency and neglect cases, the Colorado Rules of Civil Procedure apply and govern the appropriate methods of service.

Pursuant to C.R.C.P. 58(a), if the parties are not present when the court signs a judgment, "a copy of the signed judgment shall be immediately mailed by the court, pursuant to C.R.C.P. 5, to each absent party who has previously appeared."

Under C.R.C.P. 5(b)(1), service on a party represented by an attorney "is made upon the attorney unless the court orders personal service upon the party." It is not disputed here that C.R.C.P. 5(b)(2)(D) allows service by other means which includes, as relevant here, delivery to the attorney via courthouse mailbox. And, C.R.C.P. 6(e) provides that "[u]nless otherwise specifically ordered," when a filing deadline is triggered by service of an order or other document pursuant to C.R.C.P. 5(b)(2)(D), "three [calendar] days shall be added after the prescribed period would expire" under the other rules that define the length of the prescribed period.

Thus, here, service of the order pursuant to C.R.C.P. 5(b)(2)(D) was the functional equivalent of service by mail for purposes of determining whether C.A.R. 26(c), the appellate counterpart to C.R.C.P. 6(e), applies to extend the deadline for filing a notice of appeal pursuant to C.A.R. 3.4(b).

B. Under C.A.R. 26(c), Three Days Must Be Added to the Deadline for Filing a Notice of Appeal Pursuant to C.A.R. 3.4(b) When the Order Appealed Is Served on the Parties by Mail

Under C.A.R. 26(c), whenever "a party is required or permitted to do an act within a prescribed period after service of a paper upon him . . . by mail, three days shall be added to the prescribed period." The purpose of this rule is to prevent the time required for mail delivery from systematically shortening any ensuing deadlines. Clark v. City of Gunnison, 826 P.2d 402, 404 (Colo. App.1991).

The rule expressly provides that it "shall not apply to the notice of the entry of judgment . . . which may be transmitted by mail as provided by C.A.R. 4(a)." Thus, by its terms, the three-day mailing rule cannot be used to extend the deadline for filing a notice of appeal in most civil cases. See Cline v. Farmers Ins. Exch., 792 P.2d 305, 306 (Colo. App.1990).

But C.A.R. 4(a) does not apply here. A.J., 143 P.3d at 1147; A.J.H., 134 P.3d at 531-32. Dependency and neglect appeals are governed by C.A.R. 3.4, and neither C.A.R. 3.4 nor C.A.R. 26(c) prohibits application of the three-day mailing rule to notices of appeal filed in dependency and neglect cases.

As the majority observed in A.J., 143 P.3d at 1147-48, we presume the supreme court was aware of the interplay between C.A.R. 4(a) and 26 when it adopted C.A.R. 3.4. Thus, if the court had intended to prohibit application of the three-day mailing rule of C.A.R. 26(c) to notices of appeal filed pursuant to C.A.R. 3.4, it would have done so expressly, either in the language of C.A.R. 3.4 itself, or by amending C.A.R. 26(c) to provide, for example, that the rule "shall not apply to the notice of the entry of judgment . . . which may be transmitted by mail as provided in C.A.R. 3.4 and 4(a)." But it did not do so, and we will not infer an unexpressed intent from the absence of such explicit language. See A.J., 143 P.3d at 1147; cf. Bonanza Corp. v. Durbin, 696 P.2d 818, 821 (Colo.1985) (comparing C.A.R. 26(c) and C.R.C.P. 6(e), and concluding that the absence of a reference in C.R.C.P. 6(e) to an entry of judgment reinforces the interpretation that C.R.C.P. 6(e) extends the time for filing a C.R.C.P. 59 motion to alter or amend a judgment); Littlefield v. Bamberger, 10 *961

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