CURTIS PARKER
v.
FLORIDA DEPT. OF CORR.

Fla. 1st DCA | 2024-09-11
No. 1D2022-4190
PITMAN; STONE; STEPHENS
369 So. 3d 724 2024 FL 10893 Florida District Court of Appeal, First District (2024) Negative Treatment
Also reported at: 344 So. 3d 496
Cited by 14 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

Curtis Parker appeals a circuit court order dismissing his mandamus petition challenging prison disciplinary actions. The appellate panel affirmed the dismissal, holding that direct appeal is the proper mechanism for review when a mandamus complaint challenges an administrative officer's discretion rather than requesting quasi-judicial review of administrative proceedings.


Holding

The court denied Appellee's motion to convert the appeal to certiorari and proceeded with direct appeal review. The order of dismissal was proper because the circuit court did not render the order in a review capacity when it dismissed the mandamus petition for failure to establish a protected liberty interest.


Headnotes

[1] When a trial court dismisses a mandamus petition challenging an administrative agency's decision based on the petitioner's failure to allege a protected liberty interest,…

Previewing 1 of 1 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

Parker filed a petition for writ of mandamus challenging prison disciplinary actions. The circuit court dismissed the petition for failure to demonstr…

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

Appellant Curtis Parker appeals the circuit court’s order dismissing his petition for writ of mandamus, challenging prison disciplinary actions. Appellant timely filed this appeal and an initial brief. Appellee moved to convert the appeal to a certiorari petition. Because the circuit court dismissed the petition for failure to demonstrate a sufficient liberty interest to merit mandamus relief, the order was not rendered by the circuit court in a review capacity. See Sheffield v. State, 369 So. 3d 724 (Fla. 1st DCA 2023). This Court, therefore, denies Appellee’s motion to convert the appeal to a certiorari petition.

This order is consistent with the Court’s en banc decision in Gould. We disagree with the dissent that there is a need for us to engage in another en banc proceeding before we follow it. See Fla. Dep’t of Corr. v. Gould, 344 So. 3d 496, 504–05 (Fla 1st DCA 2022), rev. granted, No. SC22–1207, 2022 WL 17347630, at *1 (Fla. Dec. 1, 2022) (clarifying that certiorari review is proper “[i]f the request for mandamus necessitated a review by the trial court of a quasi-judicial administrative hearing to determine whether minimum due process expectations were met” and direct appeal is proper “[i]f the complaint instead asked the trial court simply to order an administrative officer to exercise his discretion”).

The answer brief shall be served within thirty days of the date of this order. DENIED.

ROWE, J, concurs; KELSEY, J., dissents with opinion.

_____________________________ Not final until disposition of any timely and authorized motion under Fla. R. App. P. 9.330 or 9.331.

_____________________________ KELSEY, J., dissenting with opinion.

I dissent because the majority disposition departs from our own precedent without first engaging in en banc proceedings to do so. Appellant seeks review of an order denying mandamus relief following prison disciplinary action, in which he did not lose any gain time. Here, the circuit court reached the merits of Appellant’s petition and denied it because it failed to demonstrate a due process liberty interest. Although Appellant filed a notice of appeal, Appellee has since filed a motion to convert this proceeding to certiorari review. Certiorari review is correct under our precedent and approved by the Florida Supreme Court. See Sheley v. Florida Parole Comm’n, 703 So. 2d 1202 (Fla. 1st DCA 1997) (holding that the proper method of review for an order denying mandamus relief, when mandamus was used to challenge a decision of an administrative agency, is by petition for writ of certiorari), approved, 720 So. 2d 216 (Fla. 1998). We have consistently reviewed similar orders via certiorari. E.g., Williams v. Tucker, 87 So. 3d 1270, 1271 (Fla. 1st DCA 2012); Plymel v. Moore, 770 So. 2d 242, 246 (Fla. 1st DCA 2000).

A couple of our more recent panel decisions hold to the contrary. See Sheffield v. State, 369 So. 3d 724 (Fla. 1st DCA 2023) (concluding order was not rendered by circuit court in its review capacity where mandamus complaint challenged disciplinary action and circuit court dismissed for failing to allege a protected liberty interest); Brown v. Dep’t of Corrs., 314 So. 3d 771 (Fla. 1st DCA 2021) (reviewing by appeal dismissal of mandamus petition for failure to exhaust administrative remedies).

These recent panel decisions are not valid, binding, or legitimate precedent because they departed from precedent without first obtaining the Court’s en banc authorization to do so. See, e.g., Sims v. State, 260 So. 3d 509, 514 (Fla. 1st DCA 2018) (holding that “[e]ach panel decision is binding on future panels, absent an intervening decision of a higher court or this court sitting en banc.” (citing Taylor Eng’g, Inc. v. Dickerson Fla., Inc., 221 So. 3d 719, 723 n.3 (Fla. 1st DCA 2017)); see also Nat’l Med. Imaging, LLC v. Lyon Fin. Servs., Inc., 347 So. 3d 63, 64 (Fla. 3d DCA 2020) (refusing to depart from precedent because “we are bound by this Court’s prior decision ....”); Fox v. Fox, 262 So. 3d 789, 792 (Fla. 4th DCA 2018) (“A panel of our court has no authority to overrule or recede from our precedent on the same legal issue.”).

_____________________________ Curtis Parker, pro se, Appellant. Shirtrina Niquita Roberts, Assistant General Counsel, Florida Department of Corrections, for Appellee.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

  • Parker v. Fla. Dept. of Corr., 369 So. 3d 724 (Fla. 1st DCA 2024)
    …tiorari petition. Because the circuit court dismissed the petition for failure to demonstrate a sufficient liberty interest to merit mandamus relief, the order was not rendered by the circuit court in a review capacity. See Sheffield v. State, 369 So. 3d 724 (Fla. 1st DCA 2023). This Court, therefore, denies Appellee’s motion to convert the appeal to a certiorari petition. 2 This order is consistent with the Court’s en banc decision in Gould. We disagree with the dissent that there is a ne…
    1 / 4
  • Oliver v. Fla. Comm'n on Offender Review, 48 Fla. L. Weekly D434 (Fla. 1st DCA 2023)
    …l court could not have entertained the present mandamus complaint in a review capacity.” Estremera v. Fla. Comm’n on Offender Rev., 48 Fla. L. Weekly D434 (Fla. 1st DCA Feb. 22, 2023) (Tanenbaum, J., concurring) (citing Fla. Dep’t of Corr. v. Gould, 344 So. 3d 496, 504 (Fla. 1st DCA 2022), rev. granted, SC22-1207, 2022 WL 17347630 (Fla. Dec. 1, 2022)). Indeed, the trial court, in denying the appellant’s request for relief, noted that there was no liberty interest at stake in connection with the PPRD. It, in t…
  • Sampson Courtney v. Fla. Comm'n on Offender Review, 371 So. 3d 418 (Fla. 1st DCA 2023)
    …der of a trial court on a prisoner’s mandamus complaint is one rendered by the court in its “review capacity.” See Fla. R. App. P. 9.030(b)(2)(B); cf. Fla. Dep’t of Corr. v. Gould, 344 So. 3d 496, 504–05 (Fla. 1st DCA 2022), rev. granted, SC22-1207, 2022 WL 17347630 (Fla. Dec. 1, 2022). A trial court operates in a “review capacity” regarding an agency only when it examines a quasi-judicial proceeding (i.e., a proceeding in which there is an adjudication of a factual dispute on which the parties’ rights or oblig…
    1 / 2

Previewing 3 of 10 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