JAMES WADE, PETITIONER,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, RESPONDENT

Fla. | 1976-11-18
No. 46982
OVERTON, C. J., and ROBERTS, ADKINS, BOYD, ENGLAND and HATCH-ETT, JJ., concur.
339 So. 2d 648 Florida Supreme Court (1976) Positive Treatment
Cited by 4 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 State's notice of appeal was untimely because it was filed more than 30 days after the order of dismissal was filed, which is when the order was 'rendered' for appeal purposes.


Headnotes

[1] The time for filing a notice of appeal in a criminal case is 30 days from the date the order is entered or prior to trial, whichever is sooner.

[2] In criminal appeals, an order is considered 'entered' when it is 'rendered,' meaning it has been reduced to writing, signed, and made a matter of record, or if recording…

Previewing 2 of 4 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 State lost a material piece of evidence (an automobile) crucial to the defendant's self-defense claim. The trial court dismissed the charges due t…

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
SUNDBERG, Justice.

SUNDBERG, Justice.

This case is on certiorari from the Third District Court of Appeal. Our jurisdiction vests under Article V, Section 3(b)(3), Florida Constitution.

Petitioner was involved in a gun fight in the parking lot of a nightclub in Miami, Florida. A bullet fired by him fatally wounded a man who allegedly was among those shooting at him.

.On January 4, 1972, petitioner was charged by information in the Circuit Court of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit with second degree murder. Before his trial, he demanded discovery of his automobile to demonstrate that there were bullet holes in it which would tend to establish a plea of self-defense. The State was unable to produce the automobile, which had been impounded by the municipal police authority and sold at public auction. Petitioner moved to dismiss the charges. Finding that the automobile was material and critical to the defense, the trial judge ordered it produced for inspection; upon the State’s failure to produce such automobile, the information was dismissed. The order of dismissal was filed on April 9, 1974, and recorded on April 12, 1974.

On May 10, 1974, the respondent State filed a notice of appeal, seeking review in the District Court of Appeal, Third District, of the order granting the motion to dismiss. The District Court reversed the trial court’s order of dismissal. State v. Wade, 305 So. 2d 851 (Fla. 3d DCA 1974).

After denial of his petition for rehearing, petitioner filed in this Court a petition for writ of certiorari on February 27, 1975. Wade subsequently filed a “Motion to Relinquish Jurisdiction to the District Court of Appeal, Third District,” arguing that that court had lacked jurisdiction to enter its order of reversal because the State’s notice of appeal had been untimely filed. The Court denied this motion but agreed to consider the jurisdictional argument as an additional ground for granting the petition for writ of certiorari. On February 6,1976, this Court entered its order allowing certio- rari because of conflict with State v. Armstrong, 312 So. 2d 508 (Fla. 3d DCA 1975), cert. denied 327 So. 2d 34 (Fla.1976). We have dispensed with oral argument pursuant to Rule 3.10(e), F.A.R. In the consolidated cases considered in Armstrong, supra, the Third District Court of Appeal agreed with the defendant-appellees and defendant-respondent that the State’s respective appeals and petition for writ of certiorari were untimely because they were not filed within 30 days of rendition of the orders. The court further held:

“Appeals in criminal cases must be prosecuted in accordance with part VI of the Florida Appellate Rules, and with such provisions of other parts of the Appellate Rules as are not inconsistent with the provisions of part VI. Rule 6.1, Florida Appellate Rules. The time for filing a notice of appeal is governed by Rule 6.3, Florida Appellate Rules, which provides that the appeal may be taken within 30 days from the day the order is entered, or prior to trial, whichever is sooner. The term ‘entered’ in the context of the Criminal Appeals Section of the Florida Appellate Rules has been held to mean the same as ‘rendered’ as defined in Rule 1.3, Florida Appellate Rules. State v. Shedaker, Fla.App.1966, 190 So. 2d 429; State ex rel. Faircloth v. Cross, Fla.1970, 238 So. 2d 81; White v. State, Fla.App.1972, 267 So. 2d 360.”

Id. at 509.

Rule 1.3, F.A.R., provides:

“ ‘Rendition’ of a judgment, decision, order or decree means that it has been reduced to writing, signed and made a matter of record, or if recording is not required then filed. A paper is deemed to be recorded when filed with the clerk and assigned a book and page number. .” (Emphasis supplied)

Because it was not necessary that the order issued by the trial judge be recorded,1 the time for entry of a notice of appeal ran from the date the order was filed, i. e., April 9, 1974. Thus the State’s notice of appeal, entered as it was on May 10, 1974, was not timely filed.

While our decision may seem unduly harsh to the interests of the State, we are mindful of the constitutional issue present here, as described by the District Court in Armstrong, supra, at page 510:

“It would be a denial of the right to procedural due process to permit the delay between the filing of an order and the date of its recordation to extend the time for the State to appeal such order, except any order required to be recorded by statute or rule. It would be tantamount to allowing the clerk of the circuit court, a ministerial office, to govern and enlarge the time for the taking of an appeal in derogation of the exclusive rule-making authority which has been delegated to the Florida Supreme Court.” (Footnote omitted)

Accordingly, the writ of certiorari is granted, and the opinion of the District Court of Appeal is quashed with instructions to remand the cause to the circuit court for reinstatement of the order of dismissal.

OVERTON, C. J., and ROBERTS, ADKINS, BOYD, ENGLAND and HATCH-ETT, JJ., concur. . The Florida Rules of Criminal Procedure specify that the verdict (see Fla.R.Cr.P. 3.440, 3.570) and judgments of guilty or not guilty (see Fla.R.Cr.P. 3.670, 3.830, and 3.840) must be recorded in criminal cases. In addition, § 28.29, Fla.Stat. (1975), which describes the duties of the clerk of the circuit court, provides that orders of dismissal and final judgment of such courts in civil actions shall be recorded in official records and that other orders shall be recorded only on written direction of the court.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

  • Rubenstein v. Richard Fidlin Corp. & Richard Fidlin, 346 So. 2d 89 (Fla. 3d DCA 1977)
    …e is an interlocutory order denying the appellants’ motion to set aside a default judgment. This order was not required to be recorded by the clerk except on written direction of the court. See: Section 28.29, Florida Statutes (1975); Wade v. State, 339 So. 2d 648 (Fla.1976). Since there was no such written direction in this case, the order herein was rendered the day it was filed with the clerk, September 10, 1976. Ordinarily, October 10, 1976, would have been the last day within which a notice of appeal co…
  • State v. Wade, 340 So. 2d 982 (Fla. 3d DCA 1977)
    …ersing the order of dismissal of the Circuit Court of Dade County, Florida, in the above styled cause, and WHEREAS, on review of this court’s judgment, by certiorari, the Supreme Court of Florida by its opinion and judgment filed November 18, 1976 (339 So. 2d 648) and mandate now lodged in this court quashed this court’s judgment with directions; NOW, THEREFORE, It is Ordered that the mandate of this court entered in this cause on January 28,1975 is withdrawn, the opinion and judgment of this court filed he…

Authorities Cited

Full citator, related cases, and AI research tools

Open in FLexlaw