Thursday, February 15, 2007
Emailing is Not E-filing
On February 8th, the Tenth Circuit made it clear that emailing is not the same as efiling. The court dismissed the appeal in Le Williamson v. Deluxe Financial, Case No. 05-3312 even thought the Appellant attempted to email a notice of appeal to the clerk.
Le Williamson had thirty days, or until August 5, 2005, to file a timely¶ 8:42 PM
notice of appeal. On August 5, Le Williamson apparently attempted to file his
notice of appeal with the district court via e-mail but was unsuccessful. On
August 8, he filed a hard copy of the notice of appeal via a drop box when he
discovered the notice of appeal had not been entered on the district court’s
docket.
Le Williamson argues his untimely filing should be excused because he
timely submitted the notice of appeal by e-mail.Unfortunately for Le Williamson,
a generic “submission by e-mail” is not the same as “filing” for purposes of
Rule 4. To be "filed" within the meaning of Rule 4, the document must be
submitted to the clerk’s office by an approved manner. In the District Court of
Kansas, documents can be submitted directly to the clerk’s office, by drop box,
or electronically as specified by court rules. Under the Administrative
Procedure for Filing, Signing, and Verifying Pleadings and Papers by Electronic
Means in the United States District Court for the District of Kansas in Civil
Cases (Administrative Procedure), "[e]-mailing a document to the clerk’s office
or to the assigned judge does not constitute filing the document."
