MICHAEL D. CREWS, SECRETARY, DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS, PETITIONER,
v.
RAYMOND MALARA, RESPONDENT

Fla. 1st DCA | 2013-10-11
No. 1D13-0673
THOMAS, WETHERELL, and RAY, JJ., concur.
123 So. 3d 144 Florida District Court of Appeal, First District (2013) Positive Treatment
Cited by 9 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

The Florida District Court of Appeal reversed a circuit court's grant of a mandamus petition challenging a prison disciplinary action, holding that the petition was untimely filed outside the 30-day statutory deadline under Florida Statutes § 95.11(8), which is a jurisdictional time limit. The court clarified that the DOC's established mail-tracking procedure under administrative rule 33-210.102(8)(g) creates a reliable mechanism to establish filing dates that rebuts the presumption favoring inmate filings.


Holding

The petition was untimely filed and should have been dismissed. The 30-day deadline in section 95.11(8) is jurisdictional, and the date stamp affixed to Malara's petition clearly shows it was provided to prison officials on April 6, 2010, outside the 30-day limit. Because DOC established a systematic procedure under rule 33-210.102(8)(g) for tracking legal mail dates, as suggested in Thompson, this procedure creates a mechanism to rebut the presumption favoring inmate assertions of timely filing, and Malara's own initials on the date stamp confirm its accuracy.


Headnotes

[1] A court action challenging prisoner disciplinary proceedings must be commenced within 30 days after final disposition through the administrative grievance process, and th…

[2] The "mailbox rule" deems an incarcerated litigant's filing effective at the moment the inmate loses control of the document by entrusting it to state agents for mailing.

Previewing 2 of 6 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

“Any court action challenging prisoner disciplinary proceedings conducted by the Department ... must be commenced within 30 days after final disposition of the prisoner disciplinary proceedings through the administrative grievance process under chapter 33, Florida Administrative Code.”

Establishes the jurisdictional time limit that the petition violated.

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

Inmate Malara exhausted administrative remedies for a prison disciplinary action, with the DOC Secretary's final denial occurring on March 5, 2010. Ma…

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
PER CURIAM.

PER CURIAM.

This petition for writ of certiorari seeks review of an order of the circuit court which granted a petition for writ of mandamus which challenged a prison disciplinary action. We grant the petition.

Inmate Malara exhausted his administrative remedies as to a prison disciplinary action. His final appeal to the Secretary of the Department of Corrections (DOC) was denied and filed with the agency clerk on March 5, 2010. Malara filed a petition for writ of mandamus in the circuit court which had a service date of April 5, 2010. This would have been within the 30-day time limit of section 95.11(8), Florida Statutes; however, the date stamp on the face of the petition indicated that it was provided to prison officials on April 6, 2010, which would have been one day late. The date stamp contains Malara’s initials and the initials of a second person, presumably a DOC employee. DOC filed a motion to dismiss in the circuit court arguing that Malara’s petition for writ of mandamus was filed outside the 30-day time limit of section 95.11(8). The circuit court denied the motion to dismiss stating that it was constrained by the holding in Thompson v. State, 761 So.2d 324 (Fla.2000), and was required to accept the petition as timely based on the certificate of service. Ultimately, the circuit court granted Malara’s petition for writ of mandamus.

DOC now argues that Malara’s petition for writ of mandamus was untimely filed in the circuit court and subject to dismissal under section 95.11(8), because the official date stamp showing when the petition was provided to prison officials for mailing was dated and initialed by Malara on April 6, 2010, beyond the 30-day statute of limitations of section 95.11(8). We agree.

Section 95.11(8), Florida Statutes (2010), provides that “[a]ny court action challenging prisoner disciplinary proceedings conducted by the Department ... must be commenced within 30 days after final disposition of the prisoner disciplinary proceedings through the administrative grievance process under chapter 33, Florida Administrative Code.” This time period is jurisdictional and, thus, a mandamus petition filed more than 30 days after the final disposition of a disciplinary proceeding must be dismissed. See, e.g., Hale v. McDonough, 970 So.2d 362, 364-65 (Fla. 3d DCA 2007); see also § 95.11(8), Fla. Stat. (2010) (“Any action challenging prisoner disciplinary proceedings shall be barred by the court unless it is commenced within the time period provided by this section.”). In Whitfield v. Department of Corrections, 107 So.3d 1210 (Fla. 1st DCA 2013), an inmate submitted an administrative grievance appeal to the DOC Secretary, but because the appeal was received one day after the applicable deadline, the appeal was returned with “no action” on April 18, 2011. The inmate did not seek judicial review within 30 days of that date, but “embarked on a second round of grievances and appeals within the Department challenging the Secretary’s determination that his original appeal was untimely.” Id. *146at 1211. When the second round of administrative review was unsuccessful, the inmate filed a petition for writ of mandamus in the circuit court on September 14, 2011. This court held that the inmate’s pursuit of additional, unauthorized administrative grievances did not toll or otherwise extend the jurisdictional time limits for seeking judicial review. Because the inmate’s mandamus petition seeking judicial review of his disciplinary action was not filed within the 30-day statutory time limit, this court held that the circuit court lacked jurisdiction to consider the petition. Id. at 1213.

In Houston v. Lack, 487 U.S. 266, 108 S.Ct. 2379, 101 L.Ed.2d 245 (1988), the United States Supreme Court adopted the “mailbox rule” for incarcerated litigants and held that a petition or notice of appeal filed by pro se inmate was deemed filed at the moment in time when the inmate lost control over the document by entrusting its further delivery or processing to agents of the state. In Haag v. State, 591 So.2d 614 (Fla.1992), the Florida Supreme Court adopted the “mailbox rule.” In Thompson v. State, 761 So.2d 324 (Fla.2000), the inmate was housed at a correctional institution which did not maintain outgoing mail logs. The Florida Supreme Court held that the presumption of timely filing by inmate existed if the legal document contained a certificate of service showing that the pleading was placed in the hands of prison or jail officials for mailing on a particular date and that the presumption shifted to the state the burden to prove that the document was not timely placed in prison officials’ hands for mailing. The Thompson court stated that, “[sjhould the State wish to have a means of verifying or objecting to an inmate’s assertion that his or her pleading was actually placed in the hands of prison or jail officials on a particular date, we leave it to the State to create and implement the mechanism for doing so.” Thompson 761 So.2d at 326. The “mailbox rule” for inmate filings is now codified in rule 9.420(a)(2), Florida Rules of Appellate Procedure.

Following Thompson, DOC promulgated rule 33-210.102(8)(g), Florida Administrative Code, which provides in pertinent part:

Inmates shall present all outgoing legal mail unsealed to the mail collection representative to determine, in the presence of the inmate, that the correspondence is legal mail, bears that inmate’s return address and signature, and that it contains no unauthorized items.... [T]he mail collection representative shall stamp the document(s) to be mailed and the inmate’s copy, if provided by the inmate. The date stamp shall be in the following format: “Provided to (name of institution) on (day, month and year blank to insert date) for mailing, by (officer’s initials).” The mail collection representative shall then have the inmate initial the document(s) next to the stamp and have the inmate seal the envelope in the mail collection representative’s presence. For confinement areas, the staff member who picks up the legal mail each day shall stamp the documents, have the inmate place his or her initials next to the stamp, and have the inmate seal the envelope in the staff member’s presence. The use of mail drop boxes for outgoing legal mail is prohibited.

Because DOC has established a procedure for tracking the date that legal mail changes hands for purposes of establishing jurisdictional timeframes in court proceedings as suggested in Thompson, DOC has a mechanism to rebut the presumption that the inmate’s assertion that his pleading was actually placed in the hands of prison or jail officials on a particular date. *147Malara has presented no evidence to show the DOC’s procedures under the rule did not operate as intended. The date stamp affixed to the face of Malara’s petition as required by rule 33-210.102(8)(g) clearly states that the petition was turned over to prison officials outside the 30-day time limit of section 95.11(8). Malara himself initialed the daté stamp as required by rule 33-210.102(8)(g), so the presumption must be that the date stamp properly reflects the date on which the prisoner turned his petition over for mailing. Because the petition was untimely under section 95.11(8), the petition should have been dismissed by the circuit court.

Accordingly, the final order of the circuit court is quashed and the cause is remanded for further proceedings.

THOMAS, WETHERELL, and RAY, JJ., concur.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

  • Roberto Rivera, M.D. v. Dep't OF Health, 177 So. 3d 1 (Fla. 1st DCA 2014)
    …bore an institutional mail stamp contradicting that date, and indicating that the document had actually been placed in the hands of officials in an untimely manner, in which case the institution stamp is presumed to be correct. See Crews v. Malara, 123 So. 3d 144 (Fla. 1st DCA 2013). As amended, the rule provides that when the institution has a system designed for legal mail that records the date a document is placed in the hands of an institution official for mailing and the inmate uses that system, then t…
  • Daily v. Soloway, 125 So. 3d 363 (Fla. 1st DCA 2013)
    …For purposes of the “mailbox rule,” Florida Rule of Appellate Procedure 9.420(a)(2), the presumption is that the date stamp properly reflects the date on which the notice of appeal was turned over for mailing. Crews v. Malara, 2013 WL 5584090 at *2, 123 So. 3d 144, 146 (Fla. 1st DCA Oct. 11, 2013). Because the filing date is over 30 days from the July 31, 2013, date of rendition of the order on appeal, the appeal is untimely and must be dismissed. See Fla. RApp. P. 9.110(b). However, to the extent that appell…
  • Waters v. Dept. OF Corrections, 144 So. 3d 613 (Fla. 1st DCA 2014)
    …used to compel the agency to follow its own rules.’ ” Rivera, 825 So. 2d at 506 (quoting Williams v. James, 684 So. 2d 868, 869 (Fla. 2d DCA 1996)). This includes ensuring the Department complies with inmate grievance rules. Id. In Crews v. Matara, 123 So. 3d 144 (Fla. 1st DCA 2013), this court reviewed the history of the prison mailbox rule in Florida: In Houston v. Lack, 487 U.S. 266, 108 S.Ct. 2379, 101 L.Ed.2d 245 (1988), the United States Supreme Court adopted the “mailbox rule” for incarcerated litiga…

Previewing 3 of 5 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