RIPPO v. The State of Nevada, Real Party in Interest. (2021)

ORDER DENYING PETITION

This pro se original petition seeks a writ of mandamus directing the respondent district court to transmit the judgment of conviction entered on October 27, 2020, in district court case number 92C106784 to the Director of the Department of Corrections. Having reviewed the petition, we are not convinced that our intervention is warranted at this time for two reasons.

First, the respondents do not have a legal duty to transmit the judgment of conviction to the Director, cf. NRS 176.325-.335 (addressing transmission of judgment of conviction), and therefore cannot be compelled to do so through a writ of mandamus. See NRS 34.160 (stating that a writ of mandamus may issue “to compel the performance of an act which the law especially enjoins as a duty resulting from an office, trust or station”); Walker v. Second Judicial Dist. Court, 136 Nev., Adv. Op. 80 at 3-4 (Dec. 10, 2020) (discussing scope of this court's original jurisdiction to issue writs of mandamus and requirement “that the act which is to be enforced by the mandate is that which it is the plain legal duty of the respondent to perform” (quoting Thomas Carl Spelling, A Treatise on Injunctions and Other Extraordinary Remedies 1173 (2d ed. 1901)). Second, this matter is better suited to relief in the district court in the first instance where the court can ascertain the relevant facts, namely petitioner's current custody classification. See Round Hill Gen. Imp. Dist. v. Newman, 97 Nev. 601, 604, 637 P.2d 534, 536 (1981) (explaining that “an appellate court is not an appropriate forum in which to resolve disputed questions fact”). For these reasons, we

ORDER the petition DENIED.