October 14 2014
IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF MONTANA
OP 14-0654 FILED OCT 14 2014 EiSMith IN THE MATTER OF: - .LERK OF THE SUPREME COURT STATE OF MONTANA D.F., ORDER
A Youth in Need of Care.
On October 10, 2014, at the hour of 5:00 p.m., D.F., by counsel, filed a Petition for Certiorari or Habeas Corpus and Request for Stay of Order and Placement. The youth, who is three years of age, requested the issuance of a writ to stay execution of a District Court order approving his placement in the New York residence ofhis maternal grandmother under a permanency plan, until such time as the parental rights of the youth's father, Jacob, are resolved. Jacob is currently incarcerated, and the parental rights ofD.F.'s mother have been terminated. D. F. asks this Court to place a hold on his transfer to the residence of his maternal grandmother until an interlocutory appeal or writ can be resolved. Counsel for the youth represents in the petition that he hasjust become aware that D. F. was to be transferred to New York on Saturday, October 11, 2014. By operation of law, the Clerk of Court of the Montana Supreme Court may accept documents for filing only between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. on business days. M.R. App.P. 3. By the time D.F.'s petition was filed, the Office ofthe Clerk was closing as required by law, and it would not reopen until Tuesday, October 14, due to the fact that October 13 was a holiday. There was therefore no time within which this Court could have taken official action on D.F.'s petition before D.F. was transported to New York, even if it was inclined to do so.
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D.F. indicates in his petition that he will seek an interlocutory appeal. We offer no opinion on the prospective merits of such an appeal. However, in light of the timing of D.F.'s petition for a stay of execution, IT IS ORDERED that D.F.'s petition for a stay of execution of the Department's Order of Placement is DENIED. THE Clerk of this Court is directed to provide notice of this Order to all counsel of record. DATED this 14th day of October, 2014.
gitA 6/f-e4,
Justices