Granado v. Commonwealth, 790 S.E.2d 233

Granado was convicted of DUI in the Circuit Court of Chesapeake; judgment entered June 24, 2014, and he filed a notice of appeal July 18, 2014.
Rule 5A:8(c) required a written statement of facts in lieu of a transcript to be filed within 55 days after entry of judgment (due Aug 18, 2014).
Granado filed a proposed written statement of facts on Aug 18, 2014 (unsigned by judge); a revised, judge-signed version was submitted Aug 20 and signed by the judge Aug 22, 2014.
The initial record transmitted to the Court of Appeals omitted the Aug 18 unsigned filing and included only the Aug 20/22 signed version; the Court of Appeals denied the petition for appeal, finding no timely statement of facts in the record.
The circuit court clerk later transmitted an amended record including the Aug 18 filing; a three-judge panel nonetheless denied the petition for the same reason, and Granado appealed to the Supreme Court of Virginia.
The Supreme Court considered whether the Court of Appeals erred in treating the record as lacking a timely written statement of facts and whether the clerk could include the Aug 18 document in the record without a writ of certiorari.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether the record before the Court of Appeals properly contained a timely filed written statement of facts in lieu of a transcript	Granado: the Aug 18 filing was in the clerk’s file and the later judge-signed correction (Aug 20/22) constituted a timely, compliant statement under Rule 5A:8	Commonwealth: the original certified record lacked a timely statement; clerk could not add the missing document on its own without a writ of certiorari after appeal granted	Court held the Aug 18 document was part of the record; the judge-signed Aug 20/22 statement corrected the timely filing and complied with Rule 5A:8, so the Court of Appeals erred in denying review
Whether a writ of certiorari was required for the Court of Appeals to consider an amended record before the appeal was granted	Granado: no writ required; clerk may transmit documents filed in the trial court as part of the record	Commonwealth: a writ was necessary to enlarge the record on appeal	Court held a writ was unnecessary before the petition was granted; writs are required only after an appeal is granted

LaCava v. Commonwealth, 283 Va. 465 (review standard for appeals from Court of Appeals)
Godfrey v. Commonwealth, 227 Va. 460 (writ of certiorari required to enlarge record only after appeal granted)
Lahey v. Johnson, 283 Va. 225 (statutes addressing similar subject matter construed together)
Evans v. Evans, 280 Va. 76 (in pari materia canon of construction)