SEMINOLE ENTERTAINMENT, INC., ETC., PETITIONER,
v.
CITY OF CASSELBERRY, RESPONDENT

Fla. 5th DCA | 2001-07-13
No. 5D01-1843
COBB and SHARP, W., JJ., concur.
788 So. 2d 1135 Florida District Court of Appeal, Fifth District (2001)
Cited by 1 case

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

Seminole Entertainment sought a writ of mandamus to compel the Chief Judge of the Eighteenth Judicial Circuit to reassign its certiorari petition challenging license revocation to an unbiased judge, after multiple circuit judges recused themselves. The appellate court denied the petition, finding no clear showing that the Chief Judge failed to perform a ministerial duty within a reasonable time.


Holding

The court held that a Chief Judge's responsibility is merely to randomly reassign a case after recusal, not to select a specific neutral judge, and that a writ of mandamus should not issue when there is no clear showing that the Chief Judge has failed to perform a ministerial duty within a reasonable time or has been unresponsive.


Headnotes

[1] A writ of mandamus enforces an established right by compelling public officers to perform a ministerial duty required by law.

[2] A writ of mandamus may lie to compel a judge to rule when there is no lawful basis to reserve ruling.

Previewing 2 of 5 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

Key Quotes

“It is not the responsibility of a Chief Judge to assign the case to a neutral judge, but merely to randomly reassign the case.”

Establishes the Chief Judge's ministerial duty is limited to random reassignment, not selection of a specific judge.

Previewing 1 of 3 key quotes on this case — the court’s exact language, pinpointed for members.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Facts & Procedural History

Seminole Entertainment filed a petition for writ of certiorari on March 2, 2001, to challenge the City of Casselberry's revocation of its adult entert…

The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

© FLexlaw, Inc. — AI-generated enrichments are proprietary. All rights reserved.


Opinion of the Court
PLEUS, J.

PLEUS, J.

Petitioner, Seminole Entertainment, Inc., filed a petition for writ of certiorari in the circuit court to review the order revoking its adult entertainment license entered by respondent, City of Casselberry. The petition was filed on March 2, 2001. Since that time, the following judges have re-cused themselves from hearing the case: Judge Freeman, Judge Perry, Judge Stephenson, and Judge Eaton. Judge Alley recused herself in a parallel case. Petitioner claims that its business has been devastated, and that it is being denied due process because of the refusal of the circuit court judges of the Eighteenth Judicial Circuit to review and decide its ease on the merits. Petitioner seeks from this court a writ of mandamus to compel the Chief Judge of the Eighteenth Circuit to reassign the case “to an unbiased judge or panel of judges.”

It appears from petitioner’s allegations that its case was promptly reassigned after each recusal. The case was last reassigned to Judge Eaton on May 17, 2001. Petitioner was advised on June 20, 2001, that Judge Eaton would not be hearing the ease. Petitioner does not allege when the Chief Judge was advised of the recusal.

It is not the responsibility of a Chief Judge to assign the case to a neutral judge, but merely to randomly reassign the case. If the Chief Judge chose a specific Judge to hear the case, petitioner or respondent would have grounds to complain. As stated in Caruso v. Baumle, 776 So. 2d 371 (Fla. 5th DCA 2001), a writ of mandamus enforces an established right by compelling public officers to perform a ministerial duty required by law and lies to compel a judge to rule when there is no lawful basis to reserve ruling. However, it is not clear that the Chief Judge has delayed in reassigning the case to another judge.

In Powell v. Watson, 565 So. 2d 845 (Fla. 5th DCA 1990), this court refused to issue a writ of mandamus when there was no clear showing that the judge was being unresponsive. Compare Bernard v. State, 734 So. 2d 606 (Fla. 1st DCA 1999)(mandamus appropriate where trial court’s delay in ruling on motion was unreasonable).

Although this situation may be frustrating to petitioner, it does not appear that the Chief Judge has failed to perform a ministerial duty within a reasonable time. In addition, petitioner does not allege that it has filed an emergency motion to expedite reassignment which has been ignored. Therefore, the petition for writ of mandamus is denied.

DENIED.

COBB and SHARP, W., JJ., concur.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

Authorities Cited

Full citator, related cases, and AI research tools

Open in FLexlaw