LOUIS LEE DANIELS, AKA, LEE LOUIS DANIELS, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE
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Louis Lee Daniels appealed the dismissal of his Rule 3.850 postconviction motion on the ground that it was untimely filed. The court held that when a defendant promptly refiles a motion to correct a technical defect noted by the trial court before the two-year filing deadline expires, the refiling is not subject to dismissal based on the expiration of the time limitation.
The court held that refiling a corrected motion within thirty days of the trial court's order identifying the technical defect is a prompt refiling not subject to dismissal based on expiration of the two-year time limitation, provided the original motion was filed before the deadline expired.
[1] A postconviction motion that is dismissed without prejudice due to a technical defect may be refiled to correct that defect, even if the statutory time limit for filing h…
[2] Refiling a postconviction motion within thirty days of an order dismissing it for a technical defect is considered prompt under the circumstances.
Previewing 2 of 3 headnotes on this case. FLexlaw’s editorially structured points of law — every proposition, pinpointed — are reserved for members.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“Such refiling is not subject to dismissal based upon the expiration of the two-year time limitation.”
Establishes the core holding that correcting technical defects in a timely original motion does not trigger the two-year deadline.
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceDaniels filed a Rule 3.850 motion on June 21, 1995, but it lacked a proper oath. The trial court dismissed it without prejudice on October 9, 1995, no…
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[*1345] PER CURIAM.
Louis Lee Daniels timely filed a motion seeking relief pursuant to Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850 on June 21, 1995. However, Daniels’ motion did not contain a proper oath, which the trial court noted in its October 9, 1995, order that dismissed the motion “without prejudice in which to file a postconviction motion in compliance with the Florida Rules of Criminal Procedure.”
On October 27, 1995, Daniels placed in the prison mail a motion identical to his June 21, 1995, motion except for the addition of the required oath. On January 2, 1996, the trial court dismissed Daniels’ motion with prejudice because the trial court found that the two-year time limit for filing a Rule 3.850 motion expired on October 18, 1995. The trial court’s order found Daniels’ motion to be untimely because the “ruling on the original motion was filed before the two-year time period ended, giving defendant time to refile his motion in a timely fashion.”
Daniels promptly filed his motion in response to the trial court’s order and the only change from his timely-filed motion was the correction of the technical defect specifically noted in the order. Such refiling is not subject to dismissal based upon the expiration of the two-year time limitation. Morais v. State, 640 So. 2d 1227, 1228 (Fla. 2d DCA 1994). Submission of the corrected motion within thirty days of the order is clearly a prompt refiling under the circumstances. See Haughbrook v. State, 658 So. 2d 639, 640 (Fla. 2d DCA 1995); Miller v. State, 617 So. 2d 332, 333 (Fla. 2d DCA 1993). Accordingly, we reverse the order of dismissal and remand for the trial court to rule on the merits of the motion.
Reversed and remanded.
SCHOONOVER, A.C.J., and BLUE and FULMER, JJ., concur.
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