Miller v. Com., Unemployment Compensation Bd. of Review

• Decision Date: 25 May 1984
• Citation: 505 Pa. 8,476 A.2d 364
• Parties: Raymond J. MILLER, Appellant, v. COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, UNEMPLOYMENT COMPENSATION BOARD OF REVIEW, Appellee.
• Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

Page 364

476 A.2d 364 505 Pa. 8 Raymond J. MILLER, Appellant,
v.
COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, UNEMPLOYMENT COMPENSATION
BOARD OF REVIEW, Appellee. Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. Argued March 5, 1984.
Decided May 25, 1984.

Page 365

[505 Pa. 10] Robert V. Campedel, Zemprelli, Clipper & Campedel, Clairton, for appellant.

Richard L. Cole, Jr., Charles G. Hasson, Dept. of Labor & Industry, Harrisburg, for appellee.

Before NIX, C.J., and LARSEN, FLAHERTY, McDERMOTT, HUTCHINSON, ZAPPALA and PAPADAKOS, JJ.

OPINION OF THE COURT

HUTCHINSON, Justice.

Raymond J. Miller appeals by allowance an order of Commonwealth Court which quashed his petition for review of a decision of the Unemployment Compensation Board of Review (Board). The court held that Miller's petition was untimely because it was not filed within thirty (30) days of the entry of the Board's order. Commonwealth Court based its holding on its determination that Miller's petition for review was not filed in the Prothonotary's Office until three days after the final day for filing, and the petition was not accompanied by a date-stamped United States Postal Service Form 3817 evidencing the date of mailing.

While appellant's petition for review failed to comply with the requirement of the applicable appellate rule, ¹ requiring attachment of Postal Service Form 3817 to prove timely mailing, we nevertheless reverse on the peculiar [505 Pa. 11] facts of this case. Examination of Commonwealth Court's own internal records would have revealed that the petition was timely mailed, and thus timely filed. Under such limited circumstances the quashing of appellant's petition by Commonwealth Court was improper, despite the absence of Postal Service Form 3817. The periods of time set by the General Assembly for filing appeals are jurisdictional and efficient court administration requires rules permitting summary determination of whether these requirements have been met. Nevertheless, adherence to such rules prescribing the only evidence of timely mailing which will be acceptable should not result in dismissal if timeliness can be determined by reference to the internal records of the court, and petitioner's counsel can bring the relevant facts and records which show timeliness to the court's attention, without the necessity of an evidentiary hearing.

I

Appellant, a crane operator, last worked on January 15, 1982, when his employer, Mesta Machine Company, laid him off due to the closing of the plant where he was employed. Prior to his layoff, appellant had secured part-time work with a security company during a strike at Mesta. Because his prior application for part-time work was still marked "part-time" when he applied for unemployment compensation after being laid off, the Bureau of Unemployment Compensation held that appellant was not "able and available" for work and denied his claim.

Miller appealed to a referee, who affirmed the Bureau's decision. He then filed an appeal with the Unemployment Compensation Board of Review. The Board affirmed the referee's decision on

Page 366

August 18, 1982. Thus the last day of the 30-day period for filing a petition for review from the Board's order was September 17, 1982, a Friday. Pa.R.A.P. 1512(a)(1).

Appellant's petition for review was mailed by appellant counsel's secretary on Wednesday, September 15, 1982 from the United States Post Office in Clairton, Pennsylvania. [505 Pa. 12] The petition was sent by certified mail return receipt requested. Because the secretary did not mail the petition until after 5:00 P.M. on the 15th, she could not obtain a postal form 3817 or have the certified mail form date-stamped. The petition was not clocked...