Rules of Appellate Procedure  Appellate Procedure Rule 11.1: Transfer from Supreme Judicial Court

In the case of a direct appeal to the Supreme Judicial Court, except as to any appeal concerning a conviction of murder in the first degree, within 14 days after the appeal has been docketed, or such further time as a single justice upon motion for cause shown may allow, any party may serve and file a motion to transfer the appeal to the Appeals Court. The motion (a) shall not exceed either 5 pages of text in monospaced font or 1,000 words in proportional font, as defined in Rule 20(a)(4)(B); (b) shall succinctly specify the grounds for transfer; and (c) shall conform to Rules 13, 14, 15, and 20(b). Within 7 days after filing of the motion, any other party may serve and file a response to the transfer. The response (a) shall not exceed either 5 pages of text in monospaced font or 1,000 words in proportional font, as defined in Rule 20(a)(4)(B); (b) shall succinctly specify the reasons why transfer should or should not be granted; and (c) shall conform to Rules 13, 14, 15, and 20(b).

(2019)

Rule 11.1 was revised to add the word count alternative to page limits, explained in the Reporter’s Notes to Rule 1. The phrase “except as to any appeal concerning a conviction of murder in the first degree” was added to explicitly exclude those appeals from transfer to the Appeals Court because the Appeals Court does not have concurrent appellate jurisdiction over such appeals. See G. L. c. 278, § 33E and G. L. c. 211A, § 10. Since the Supreme Judicial Court’s practice is that oral argument is not ordinarily permitted in connection with a motion to transfer the appeal to the Appeals Court or response to such a motion, reference to such oral argument was deleted.

Further organizational and stylistic revisions were made to this rule in 2019 in accordance with a global review and revision of all of the Appellate Rules. These revisions are described in the 2019 Reporter’s Notes to Rule 1.

With regard to the preparation of the 2019 Reporter’s Notes to this Rule, see the first paragraph of the 2019 Reporter’s Notes to Rule 1. For an overview of the 2019 amendments to the Rules and a summary of the global amendments to the Rules, see 2019 Reporter’s Notes to Rule 1, sections I. and II.

(1973) 

Appeals which have proceeded direct to the Supreme Judicial Court without application of a party, that is, on judicial certification or order, see Appellate Rule 11(f), have by definition not afforded the parties an opportunity to oppose direct review. (Review after application, of course, has resulted from a procedure permitting the party not applying for direct review to oppose it, Appellate Rule 11(c).) Appellate Rule 11.1 permits either party to an appeal which has been brought up to the Supreme Judicial Court without application to indicate any reason why the case should be transferred back to the Appeals Court.