EUGENIE BOYD, APPELLANT,
v.
DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE, APPELLEE

Fla. 4th DCA | 1996-09-04
No. 95-3205
GLICKSTEIN and SHAHOOD, JJ., concur.
682 So. 2d 1117 Florida District Court of Appeal, Fourth District (1996) Positive Treatment
Cited by 12 cases

AI-generated. These summaries, headnotes, and key points are machine-generated and may contain errors or omissions. Always verify against the full opinion text below. Not legal advice.

Synopsis

Eugenie Boyd challenged her dismissal from the Department of Revenue, claiming the hearing officer and PERC erred in finding she was properly dismissed for cause. The Fourth District affirmed the dismissal, holding that the hearing officer's findings of fact are binding when supported by competent substantial evidence and that Boyd failed to preserve her discrimination argument for appeal.


Holding

The court affirmed PERC's decision upholding Boyd's dismissal because competent substantial evidence supported the hearing officer's findings of fact and conclusions that Boyd was properly dismissed for unsatisfactory work performance. The Department substantially complied with its regulations, the deviations were technical and did not impair Boyd's ability to comply with the plan, and the dismissal sanction was within statutorily permissible actions. Boyd's discrimination claim was not preserved for appeal because she failed to raise it below.


Headnotes

[1] A hearing officer, not an appellate court, is responsible for weighing evidence, resolving conflicts, judging witness credibility, and drawing inferences to reach finding…

[2] An appellate court cannot overturn a hearing officer's findings of fact based on disputed issues when competent substantial evidence supports those findings.

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Key Quotes

“it is the hearing officer's function to consider all evidence presented, resolve conflicts, judge credibility of witnesses, draw permissible inferences from the evidence, and reach ultimate findings of fact”

Establishes the limited scope of appellate review and the deference owed to hearing officer factfinding

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Facts & Procedural History

Boyd was dismissed from her employment with the Department of Revenue following a performance improvement plan. The hearing officer found that Boyd wa…

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Opinion of the Court
WARNER, Judge.

WARNER, Judge.

Appellant challenges the final order entered by the Public Employees Relations Commission (PERC) accepting the report of a hearing officer that appellant’s dismissal from her employment with the Department of Revenue (DOR) be affirmed. Because we too must accept the findings of fact made by the hearing officer, we affirm the order of PERC.

Appellant makes several challenges to the hearing officer’s recommendations.

First, she claims that the hearing officer and PERC erred in finding that the DOR had proven that she was properly dismissed for cause. As support for this proposition, appellant discusses facts that the hearing officer overlooked. Essentially, appellant is asking this court to reweigh the evidence considered by the hearing officer.

However, it is the hearing officer’s function to consider all evidence presented, resolve conflicts, judge credibility of witnesses, draw permissible inferences from the evidence, and reach ultimate findings of fact. Heifetz v. Department of Business Regulation, 475 So. 2d 1277, 1281 (Fla. lst DCA 1985). When evidence presented supports two inconsistent findings, it is the hearing officer’s role to decide the issue, and neither PERC nor this court can overturn the officer’s findings based on disputed issues of fact. Id. As there appears in the record competent substantial evidence to support the hearing officer’s findings of fact and conclusions of law that appellant was properly dismissed for unsatisfactory work performance, PERC did not err in affirming the officer’s decision.

We also find no error in the officer’s decision that the DOR substantially complied with its administrative regulations in formulating and implementing appellant’s performance improvement plan and in dismissing her. The deviations from exact compliance with the regulations were technical and did not impair appellant’s ability to comply with the plan or to achieve a fair evaluation of bier performance, nor did appellant show how the method and manner of her dismissal prejudiced her. While she claims that she was not given a frill sixty-day evaluation period, part of that time included sick leave which she took for stress without the prior approval of her supervisors. She did not request that her evaluation period be extended because of the missed time. The DOR did not shorten her evaluation time period and cannot be required to give an extension of the period which was never requested.

Appellant also argues that the dismissal sanction recommended by the hearing officer and affirmed by PERC was too severe for the circumstances of her case. It is not this court’s position to reweigh the evidence and come to a different conclusion regarding the sanctions imposed so long as they are within the statutorily permissible actions available.

Finally, appellant argues that there was discrimination shown in the work place, furnishing this court with documents of charges of racial discrimination against some of her supervisors well before her employ ment with the DOR. These are serious charges, and if her dismissal were racially motivated, relief may be available in the form of an equal employment discrimination action. But as she admits in her brief, there was no evidence placed before the hearing officer regarding these prior charges which might have affected the evaluation of the credibility of these witnesses. As appellant failed to raise this issue below, this court cannot reach the issue for the first time on appeal. See Dance v. Tatum, 629 So. 2d 127, 129 (Fla.1993); Hurley v. Slingerland, 461 So. 2d 282 (Fla. 4th DCA 1985).

Affirmed.

GLICKSTEIN and SHAHOOD, JJ., concur.


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Citator

Cited By

  • Addison v. Agency for Persons with Disabilities, 113 So. 3d 1053 (Fla. 1st DCA 2013)
    …ed upon competent substantial evidence. See Heifetz v. Dep’t of Bus. Regulation, 475 So. 2d 1277, 1281 (Fla. 1st DCA 1985). If supported by competent, substantial evidence, an appellate court must accept those findings. See Boyd v. Dep’t of Revenue, 682 So. 2d 1117, 1118 (Fla. 4th DCA 1996). The standard of review of an agency decision based on an issue of law is whether the agency’s interpretation is erroneous and whether a particular course of action is compelled by the correct interpretation. See Metro. Dad…
  • Conklin Shows, Inc. v. Dep't OF Revenue, 684 So. 2d 328 (Fla. 4th DCA 1996)
    …gs, it is the hearing officer’s function to resolve the issue, one way or the other, and neither the Department nor this court may overturn the hearing officer’s findings based on disputed issues of fact. Id.; see also Boyd v. Department of Revenue, 682 So. 2d 1117 (Fla. 4th DCA 1996). The record in this case contains competent substantial evidence to support the hearing officer’s findings of fact and conclu-. sions of law relative to the assessment of sales tax arising from appellant’s business relationship w…
  • Univ. OF S. Fla. Coll. OF Nursing v. State, 812 So. 2d 572 (Fla. 2d DCA 2002)
    …governing other forms of competitive procurement, such as competitive sealed proposals. Both parties make persuasive arguments on this point, but we do not decide it because it was raised for the first time in this appeal. Boyd v. Dep’t of Revenue, 682 So. 2d 1117 (Fla. 4th DCA 1996). Affirmed. WHATLEY and DAVIS, JJ„ Concur.…

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