587 A.2d 48 | Pa. Commw. Ct. | 1991
Before us for disposition is an appeal by Geary Turner (Petitioner) from an order of the Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole (Board) which denied his request for administrative relief. Also before us is the Board’s motion to quash the appeal as untimely.
It is undisputed that the order of the Board from which Petitioner seeks review was mailed on February 1, 1989. It is also undisputed that the Petitioner’s petition for review which was filed pro se was not filed with this Court until March 6, 1989. And, the requirement is that a petition for review from a Board order must be filed with this Court within thirty days of its entry. Pa.R.A.P. 1512(a)(1); Altieri v. Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole, 88 Pa.Commonwealth Ct. 592, 495 A.2d 213 (1985). The petition is considered “filed” when it is actually received by the prothonotáry unless the petitioner uses a U.S. Postal Form 3817 certificate of mailing in which case the petition is deemed filed on the date appearing on that form.
Petitioner does not argue that his appeal was timely filed. Rather, he suggests that this Court should adopt the holding of Houston v. Lack, 487 U.S. 266, 108 S.Ct. 2379, 101 L.Ed.2d 245 (1988), a United States Supreme Court case wherein the High Court held that for purposes of the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure an incarcerated prisoner’s appeal can be considered filed at the point when it is delivered to the prison authorities for mailing. The Court recognized that because an inmate is unable to travel to the courthouse to file an appeal personally he is dependent upon the correctional facilities mailing system.
First, as previously noted, Houston construes a Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure. Second, the rule is grounded
Appeal quashed.
ORDER
NOW, February 14, 1991, the Board of Probation and Parole’s motion is granted and appeal in the above-captioned matter is hereby quashed.
. Petitioner here did not use a 3817 Form.
. Having determined that Petitioner’s appeal is indeed untimely and must be quashed, we do not reach the merits of his appeal.