Coldren v. Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole

In Coldren v. Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole, 795 A.2d 457 (Pa. Cmwlth. 2002), petitioner's appeal, itself, had no date on it, but the postmark on the certified mail envelope was dated after the deadline for filing. Id. Petitioner, however, asserted that the cash slip, through which he requested the funds to pay for postage, was dated earlier than that deadline and, therefore, proved that he had timely submitted his appeal to the prison authorities for mailing. Id. The Court noted the date stamp on the cash slip itself was not clear, and there was no indication of whether that was the date he turned in his appeal or another date. Id. Because this Court determined that the record was insufficient to properly determine the date on which the petitioner deposited his appeal with the prison authorities, which was the critical date, we vacated and remanded the Board's dismissal for that factual determination. Id. at 459. The Court has allowed a cash slip to be used to help determine when an appeal was given to prison authorities within the "prisoner mailbox rule." See Coldren, 795 A.2d at 458.