L.J. JOHNSON, APPELLANT,
v.
ROBERT L. "SKIP" JARVIS, JR., STATE ATTORNEY FOR THE THIRD JUDICIAL CIRCUIT OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE

Fla. 1st DCA | 2011-11-16
No. 1D11-1710
THOMAS and CLARK, JJ., concur.
74 So. 3d 168 Florida District Court of Appeal, First District (2011) Positive Treatment
Cited by 15 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.


Holding

The dismissal of the complaint was inappropriate because it stated a cause of action under the Public Records Law, and the trial court erred by not holding an evidentiary hearing.


Headnotes

[1] A trial court's order of dismissal is subject to de novo review.

[2] In ruling on a motion to dismiss, a trial court must treat all well-pleaded allegations in the complaint as true and resolve all inferences in favor of the non-moving par…

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

Facts & Procedural History

The appellant sought to inspect public records held by the State Attorney's office. Despite the records being accessible locally, the State Attorney's…

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
ROBERTS, J.

ROBERTS, J.

The appellant, L.J. Johnson, seeks review of the trial court’s order dismissing his complaint for declaratory and injunc-tive relief under Florida’s Public Records Law, chapter 119, Florida Statutes (2010). We find that the dismissal was inappropriate and reverse and remand for an eviden-tiary hearing on the merits.

The appellee, Robert L. “Skip” Jarvis, Jr., is the State Attorney for the Third Judicial Circuit of Florida, which includes the counties of Columbia, Suwannee, Hamilton, Dixie, Lafayette, Taylor, and Madison. The appellee promulgated a public records policy whereby requests to inspect or copy case files under chapter 119 were to be directed to his main office in Live Oak, Suwannee County, Florida, so that he could personally review each case file to ensure no exempted information was disclosed.

The appellant, a resident of Lake City, Columbia County, Florida, filed a complaint against the appellee for declaratory and injunctive relief containing the following allegations. After his arrest following an incident at a Lake City Wal-Mart store, the appellant’s case was assigned to an Assistant State Attorney (ASA) in Lake City for prosecution. The ASA was given custody of the appellant’s case file which included witness statements and video surveillance from the Wal-Mart store. The appellant’s attorney made an appointment with the ASA to view the video and pick up copies of witness statements. When the appellant’s attorney arrived at the ASA’s office, he was informed that charges against the appellant had been dropped. He was also informed that since a “No Information” had been filed, access to the witness statements and surveillance video needed to be accomplished through a public records request.

The complaint further alleged that the appellant’s attorney made a verbal public records request in the ASA’s office. Although the case file was within reach, the ASA denied the request to inspect the records. After refusing to provide the records, the ASA informed the appellant’s attorney of the appellee’s public records policy and suggested that he put the request in writing. The appellant’s attorney *170promptly wrote a public records request which the ASA placed in the case file to be transported to the Live Oak office. Thereafter, the appellant received a letter from the appellee informing him that the records would be made available at the Live Oak office and that he should contact the appellee’s legal assistant to arrange a date and time for inspection.

The appellant’s complaint argued that the refusal to produce the requested records in Lake City was unreasonable and in violation of section 119.07, Florida Statutes (2010), and Article I, section 24 of the Florida Constitution. The complaint also argued that the appellee’s policy of removing public records from the custody of their home counties to Live Oak and requiring inspection there was unreasonable, caused unnecessary expense and delay, and was a violation of sections 119.07 and 119.021, Florida Statutes (2010), and Article I, section 24 of the Florida Constitution. The appellant sought judgment against the appellee in the nature of an order requiring the appellee to permit inspection of the records in Lake City, enjoining the appellee from removing files from the office where they were ordinarily used and requiring inspection in Live Oak, and granting attorney’s fees and costs.

The appellee filed a motion for dismissal and attorney’s fees and costs arguing, among other things, that the complaint failed to state a cause of action because there was no refusal of access to the records. Although an accelerated hearing on the complaint was scheduled under section 119.11, Florida Statutes (2010), the trial court only heard argument on the motion to dismiss, not on the merits of the appellant’s complaint. The trial court granted the motion to dismiss, finding that there had been no refusal to provide the requested records and “the place, time, and conditions for compliance (providing the records) [was not] unreasonable.”

A trial court’s order of dismissal is subject to de novo review. See Brewer v. Clerk of Circuit Court, Gadsden County, 720 So.2d 602, 603 (Fla. 1st DCA 1998). In ruling on the motion to dismiss, the trial court was required to confine its analysis to the four corners of the complaint, treat all of the complaint’s well-pleaded allegations as true, and resolve all inferences drawn from those allegations in the appellant’s favor. See Sobi v. Fairfield Resorts, Inc., 846 So.2d 1204, 1206-07 (Fla. 5th DCA 2003).

The appellant’s complaint alleged instances of refusal and facially stated a cause of action under chapter 119. Accordingly, we reverse the order dismissing the complaint and remand for an evidentia-ry hearing on the merits. See Grace v. Jenne, 855 So.2d 262 (Fla. 4th DCA 2003) (reversing order dismissing the appellant’s complaint and finding the order, entered without an evidentiary hearing, was premature); Puls v. City of Port St. Lucie, 678 So.2d 514 (Fla. 4th DCA 1996) (reversing order granting motion to dismiss and remanding for an evidentiary hearing on the issue of whether, under the facts of the case, there was an unlawful refusal of access to the records within the meaning of section 119.12(1), Florida Statutes (1995)); James v. Loxahatchee Groves Water Control Dist., 820 So.2d 988 (Fla. 4th DCA 2002) (granting mandamus and directing the trial court to hold a hearing and determine if plaintiffs request to examine defendant’s records at defendant’s office should be granted, and if so, under what conditions pursuant to sections 119.07(l)(a) and (b)).

On remand, the trial court must determine whether there was a delay to produce the requested records and, if so, whether the delay was reasonable under the facts *171of this case. The reasonableness of the appellee’s policy itself is not the subject of the inquiry. Rather, the inquiry centers on whether the application of the policy resulted in an unjustified delay that amounted to an unlawful refusal to comply with chapter 119. See e.g., Barfield v. Town of Eatonville, 675 So.2d 228 (Fla. 5th DCA 1996) (“An unjustified delay in complying with a public record request amounts to an unlawful refusal under section 119.12(1), Florida Statutes.”).

We REVERSE and REMAND for an evidentiary hearing.

THOMAS and CLARK, JJ., concur.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

  • Bd. OF Trs. v. LEE, 189 So. 3d 120 (Fla. 2016)
    …n agency status is not in doubt, nor has there - been since the 1984 amendment of section 119.12, when the legislature removed the necessity of showing that an agency “unreasonably” refused inspection of public records. See, e.g., Johnson v. Jarvis, 74 So. 3d 168 (Fla. 1st DCA 2011); Weeks v. Golden, 764 So. 2d 633 (Fla. 1st DCA 2000); Office of State Attorney for the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit of Fla. v. Gonzalez, 953 So. 2d 759 (Fla. 2d DCA 2007). Accordingly, the lower court erred as a matter of, law by…
  • Lilker v. Suwannee Valley Transit Auth. & Gwendolyn Pra, 133 So. 3d 654 (Fla. 1st DCA 2014)
    …ey for Thirteenth Judicial Circuit of Fla. v. Gonzalez, 953 So. 2d 759, 760 (Fla. 2d DCA 2007). Where delay is at issue, as here, the court must determine whether the delay was justified under the facts of the particular case. See Johnson v. Jarvis, 74 So. 3d 168, 170-71 (Fla. 1st DCA [*656] 2011). If not, the delay constitutes unlawful refusal. See id.; cf. Weeks v. Golden, 764 So. 2d 633, 635 (Fla. 1st DCA 2000) (reversing a trial court’s determination that certain records were exempt and directing the cou…
  • Consumer Rights, LLC v. Bradford Cnty., 153 So. 3d 394 (Fla. 1st DCA 2014)
    …orkers Temp. Staffing Inc., 123 So. 3d 650, 653 (Fla. 4th DCA 2013); Havens v. [*399] Coast Fla., P.A., 117 So. 3d 1179,1180 (Fla. 2d DCA 2013); Rhea v. Dist. Bd. of Trs. of Santa Fe Coll., 109 So. 3d 851, 854 (Fla. 1st DCA 2013); Johnson v. Jarvis, 74 So. 3d 168,170 (Fla. 1st DCA 2011). Any factfinding purportedly justifying the dismissal of the prayer for injunctive relief was also procedurally improper. See Andrew v. Shands at Lake Shore, Inc., 127 So. 3d 1289, 1290 (Fla. 1st DCA 2013) (holding “the all…

Previewing 3 of 8 citing cases — full citator treatment, depth of discussion, and citing context are member features.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Authorities Cited

Full citator, related cases, and AI research tools

Open in FLexlaw