There was an interesting slip opinion issued today by the Supreme Judicial Court.
A clerk in the Bristol County Probate & Family Court rejected a man’s filing which sought to change his name.
The man filed a petition with a single justice of the SJC (per G.L. c. 211, Sec. 3) seeking a writ of mandamus ordering the clerk’s office to accept the filing.
The single justice denied the petition and the SJC affirmed that decision.
According to the justices, the man needed to seek redress from a judge of the Bristol County Probate & Family Court before seeking appellate review.
[T]his court has repeatedly indicated that a party alleging that a clerk failed to docket a filing should seek relief in the first instance from a judge of that court. See Watson v. Clerk-Magistrate of Dorchester Div. of Dist. Court Dep’t, 453 Mass. 1007, 1008 (2009), and cases cited; Davis, supra at 1010 (“The plaintiffs could have filed a motion in the Probate Court to compel the register of that court to accept for filing their notice of appeal and to process that appeal”). Cf. Santos, 480 Mass. at 1020 (“Any question concerning the actual receipt and filing of the motion is something that should itself be resolved in the trial court in the first instance”). Absent any indication that [the petitioner] sought such relief, he has not demonstrated that he is entitled to superintendence relief from this court under G. L. c. 211, § 3, or relief in the nature of mandamus.
The full text of the opinion is attached below.