In re Welfare of S.M.E.

• Decision Date: 11 January 2007
• Docket Number: No. A06-330.,A06-330.
• Citation: 725 N.W.2d 740
• Parties: In the Matter of the WELFARE OF S.M.E., Child.
• Court: Minnesota Supreme Court

725 N.W.2d 740

In the Matter of the WELFARE OF S.M.E., Child.

No. A06-330.

Supreme Court of Minnesota.

January 11, 2007.

Ann McCaughan, Office of the State Public Defender, Minneapolis, MN, for Appellant.

Lori Swanson, State Attorney General, St. Paul, MN, Michael A. Fahey, Carver County Attorney, Janet L. Barke Cain, Assistant Carver County Attorney, Chaska, MN, for Respondents.

Heard, considered, and decided by the court en banc.

OPINION

ANDERSON, G. Barry, Justice.

S.M.E. seeks review of a decision from the court of appeals holding that his appeal from a district court's adjudication was untimely. We hold that, in the unusual circumstances of this case, an out-of-time appeal should be granted in the interests of justice. Therefore, we reverse and remand to the court of appeals.

Petitioner S.M.E. was charged on April 14, 2005, with two counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct involving victims 24 months younger than him. S.M.E. admitted to the second count, which occurred when he was a 17-year-old juvenile, and was given a stay of adjudication and six months probation.

On December 12, 2005, the district court held a probation revocation hearing. At that hearing and at two previous hearings, S.M.E. admitted to multiple probation violations. On December 13, the district court issued findings and an order revoking the stay of adjudication. As a result, S.M.E. was placed on indefinite probation and ordered to register as a predatory sex offender, complete two days of community service, provide a DNA sample, and continue to attend therapy.

On December 19, S.M.E.'s attorney faxed a letter to the district court. The letter stated that it was written "pursuant to Minnesota General Rules of Practice 115.11, asking [him] to consider rehearing" the order revoking the stay of adjudication. The letter noted that a hearing had been scheduled for December 27, and that if the court decided not to hear the matter it would be removed from the calendar. As the basis for the rehearing, the letter asserted a lack of due process because the report of S.M.E.'s therapist was not provided to S.M.E. or the state in enough time for either to review it prior to the December 12 hearing.

There is no indication that the district court responded to the letter, but the court held the requested hearing on December 27 "for the purpose of arguing the motion for reconsideration." At the hearing, the court heard the testimony of S.M.E.'s therapist and received the probation officer's chronological records as exhibits. The court gave the parties two weeks to submit additional written responses to those exhibits. S.M.E. submitted additional information.

On January 12, 2006, the district court issued another set of findings and order. The findings were identical to those issued on December 13 except that they noted the December 27 hearing. The order, in its entirety, read: "The Juvenile's Motion for Reconsideration is hereby denied." Attached to the order was a new memorandum describing the court's "great difficulty in determining the proper course to take in this matter" and citing two reasons for denying the motion for reconsideration: (1) reservations about S.M.E.'s purported low risk to reoffend, and (2) concern for the integrity of the court in light of S.M.E.'s pattern of "impulsive and unlawful" behavior.

On February 13, S.M.E., represented by new counsel, filed a notice of appeal from the January 12 order. On February 15, the state filed a motion to dismiss the appeal, arguing that S.M.E. had thirty days to appeal the January 12 order and that the appeal was thus untimely. See Minn. R. Juv. Delinq. P. 21.03 (setting the time to file an appeal at thirty days).

On March 7, the court of appeals dismissed the appeal as untimely for a different reason. The court held that because the thirty-day appeal period beginning January 12 expired on a weekend, Minn. R. Juv. Delinq. P. 31.01 extended the time to file to the following Monday, February 13. S.M.E.'s appeal was therefore timely if the January 12 order was appealable. The court held, however, that the January 12 order was not appealable because neither the juvenile delinquency rules nor the civil appellate rules recognize a motion for reconsideration as one that extends the time to appeal.

S.M.E. petitioned this court for review, asserting that the December 19 letter extended the time to appeal and that the January 12 order was appealable. In the alternative, S.M.E. requests that we grant an out-of-time appeal either in the interests of justice or for ineffective assistance of appellate counsel for failure to file a timely notice of appeal.

Any effort to neatly apply procedural rules to the history of this case is fruitless. The December 19 letter was, on its face, a request to make a motion to reconsider under Minn. R. Gen. Prac. 115.11.¹ That rule does not apply in juvenile delinquency proceedings. See Minn. R. Gen. Prac. 101. And the district court did not expressly give permission for S.M.E. to make the motion to reconsider as Rule 115.11 requires, although the court seems to have implicitly granted permission by holding the December 27 hearing.

At that hearing, the district court received the parole officer's chronological records as exhibits and heard brief testimony from S.M.E.'s therapist regarding his progress and risk to reoffend. Thus, the December 27 hearing, although purportedly for the purpose of hearing the motion for reconsideration, was also in the nature of an evidentiary hearing. The January 12 order was styled as a denial of the motion for reconsideration, but the expanded memorandum attached to the order detailed the court's great difficulty in deciding to adjudicate S.M.E., suggesting that the court did, in fact, "reconsider" his decision, although arriving at the same conclusion the court reached the first time.

The procedural effects of the letter, the hearing, and the order are thus open for debate, and S.M.E. invokes them all. His brief is an amalgam of disparate authorities that never makes quite clear the grounds on which he believes his appeal can be deemed timely. We will attempt to discern those grounds and address each as appropriate.

We interpret procedural rules de novo. Madson v. Minn. Mining & Mfg. Co., 612 N.W.2d 168, 170 (Minn.2000). When construing procedural rules, we look to the plain language of the rule and its purpose. Id. at 171. Our policy is to preserve the right to appeal, simplify practice, and lessen confusion. Huntsman v. Huntsman, 633 N.W.2d 852, 855 (Minn. 2001). Minnesota Statutes § 260B.415 (2004) provides an appeal as of right for a child adjudicated delinquent. An appeal in a juvenile delinquency proceeding must be taken within thirty days of an appealable order. Minn. R. Juv. Delinq. P. 21.03, subd. 2(A).

S.M.E. appears to rely, in part, on the comments to Minn. R.Crim. P. 28.05 and State v. Wollan, 303 N.W.2d 253, 254 (Minn.1981), which indicate that a good-faith timely motion by a prosecuting attorney for clarification or rehearing of an appealable order extends the time to appeal from that order. S.M.E. argues that his good-faith motion for rehearing of the appealable December 13 order should similarly be viewed as extending the time for appeal of that order. Otherwise, he contends, his equal protection rights would be violated. This argument is to no avail, however, because the Rules of Civil Appellate Procedure, not the Rules of Criminal Procedure, apply to appeals from juvenile delinquency proceedings. See Minn. R. Juv. Del. P. 21.01.

S.M.E.'s letter to the district court referenced Minn. R. Gen. Prac. 115.11, which authorizes motions for reconsideration if expressly allowed by the court, and asked "that this matter be reconsidered." While certain post-decision motions extend the time to appeal until those motions have been decided, motions for reconsideration do not. Minn. R. Civ.App. P. 104.01, subd. 2. Motions for reconsideration were deliberately excluded from the list in Rule 104.01 because such motions are never mandated and are considered only at the district court's discretion. Id., Advisory Committee Comment — 1998 Amendments.

Recognizing this, S.M.E. now characterizes his motion as one for reconsideration "and rehearing." Indeed, the December 19 letter not only asks for reconsideration, but also states that S.M.E.'s attorney "is asking [the court] to consider rehearing the [S.M.E.] ruling that was filed December 13, 2005." (Emphasis added.) Like a motion for reconsideration, a motion for rehearing is not among those motions expressly listed as extending the appeal period in Rule 104.01, subd. 2. But the juvenile rules provide that denial of a motion for rehearing is a final appealable order in the same provision that includes denial of a new trial motion, Minn. R. Juv. Delinq. P. 21.03, subd. 1(A)(5), and Minn. R. Civ. App. P. 104.01, subd. 2, provides that motions for new trial...