Page:United States Reports 502 OCT. TERM 1991.pdf/407

 502us2$20J 01-22-99 14:22:41 PAGES OPINPGT

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

249

Opinion of the Court

ment filed within the time specified by Rule 4 gives the notice required by Rule 3, it is effective as a notice of appeal. The Fourth Circuit’s other ground for dismissing Smith’s appeal is also insufficient. The Federal Rules do envision that the notice of appeal and the appellant’s brief will be two separate filings. Compare Fed. Rule App. Proc. 3(c) (content of notice of appeal) with Fed. Rule App. Proc. 28(a) (content of appellant’s brief). They do not preclude an appellate court from treating a filing styled as a brief as a notice of appeal, however, if the filing is timely under Rule 4 and conveys the information required by Rule 3(c). Such treatment is in fact appropriate under Torres and under Rule 3(c)’s provision that “[a]n appeal shall not be dismissed for informality of form or title of the notice of appeal.” Having accepted a paper as the notice of appeal required by Rule 3, an appellate court might require timely filing of a second document meeting its standards for a brief or, if the paper meets those standards, take such other action as it deems appropriate to ensure that the filing sequence contemplated by the Rules is not disturbed. See, e. g., Fed. Rule App. Proc. 10(b) (time for ordering transcripts for inclusion in the record on appeal); Fed. Rule App. Proc. 31(a) (briefing schedule). Proper briefing is not, however, a jurisdictional requirement under the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure. See Fed. Rule App. Proc. 3(a) (“Failure of an appellant to take any step other than the timely filing of a notice of appeal does not affect the validity of the appeal . . .”). Respondents make the point that Smith filed his brief with the Court of Appeals, whereas Rule 3(a) directs litigants to file their notices of appeal with district courts. The Rules themselves answer this argument. Rule 4(a)(1) sets out a transmittal procedure to be followed when the notice of appeal is mistakenly filed with an appellate court, and provides that a misfiled notice “shall be deemed filed in the district court” on the day it was received by the court of appeals.