William Wolfe v. Johanna Smith

MEMORANDUM

William Wolfe appeals the district court’s dismissal of his 28 U.S.C. § 2254 petition. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 and § 2253, and we affirm.

Wolfe’s federal habeas petition was due in April of 1997 under the one-year “grace period” after the enactment of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (“AEDPA”). Patterson v. Stewart, 251 F.3d 1243, 1245-46 (9th Cir.2001). He did not file this action until 2009. Wolfe argues that his petition should be considered timely under the doctrines of equitable estoppel and equitable tolling because the state withheld his legal materials from him until May of 1997. We review de novo. Bills v. Clark, 628 F.3d 1092, 1096 (9th Cir.2010).

Even assuming that withholding Wolfe’s legal materials from him constituted affirmative misconduct or an extraordinary circumstance beyond Wolfe’s control, the state’s misconduct tolled the statute of limitations only as long as that conduct endured. NLRB v. Don Burgess Constr. Corp., 596 F.2d 378 , 383 (9th Cir.1979) (“[Fjraudulent concealment tolls a statute of limitations only for as long as the concealment endures.”); see also Pace v. DiGuglielmo, 544 U.S. 408, 419…