Page:United States Reports 502 OCT. TERM 1991.pdf/405

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Cite as: 502 U. S. 244 (1992)

247

Opinion of the Court

mal brief to the Court of Appeals on May 4, 1988, within the deadline for filing a notice of appeal. After appointment of appellate counsel, the Fourth Circuit dismissed Smith’s appeal for want of jurisdiction. It held that Smith’s notice of appeal was untimely and that his informal brief was not “the ‘functional equivalent’ ” of the notice of appeal Rule 3 requires. Smith v. Galley, 919 F. 2d 893, 895 (1990) (quoting Torres v. Oakland Scavenger Co., 487 U. S. 312, 317 (1988)). The court reasoned that Smith filed the informal brief in response to a briefing order and that the Federal Rules envision that the notice of appeal and the appellate brief will be two separate documents. 919 F. 2d, at 895–896. In a footnote, the court listed specific omissions that might render Smith’s informal brief inadequate as a notice of appeal. Id., at 896, n. 7. Given its conclusion that a brief can never be considered a notice of appeal, however, the Fourth Circuit expressed no opinion on the significance of these omissions. Ibid. We granted certiorari, 501 U. S. 1249 (1991), to decide whether an appellate brief may serve as the notice of appeal required by Rule 3. This question has divided the Courts of Appeals. Compare Smith v. Galley, supra; United States v. Cooper, 876 F. 2d 1192, 1196 (CA5 1989) (appellate brief cannot substitute for notice of appeal); and Jurgens v. McKasy, 905 F. 2d 382, 385, n. 4 (CA Fed. 1990) (same), with Frace v. Russell, 341 F. 2d 901, 903 (CA3) (treating brief as notice of appeal), cert. denied, 382 U. S. 863 (1965); Allah v. Superior Court of California, 871 F. 2d 887, 889–890 (CA9 1989) (same); and Finch v. Vernon, 845 F. 2d 256, 259–260 (CA11 1988) (same). II Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 3(a) provides, in pertinent part, that “[a]n appeal permitted by law as of right from a district court to a court of appeals shall be taken by filing a notice of appeal with the clerk of the district court within the time allowed by Rule 4.” Rule 3(c) governs the