Ardis v. Pensacola State College

128 So. 3d 260, 2013 WL 6635719, 2013 Fla. App. LEXIS 19923
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedDecember 17, 2013
DocketNo. 1D12-2638
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 128 So. 3d 260 (Ardis v. Pensacola State College) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ardis v. Pensacola State College, 128 So. 3d 260, 2013 WL 6635719, 2013 Fla. App. LEXIS 19923 (Fla. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

ON MOTION TO RECALL MANDATE

PER CURIAM.

On November 22, 2013, Robert Michael Ardis, filed a “Motion to Re-open Case, in the Interests of Justice Based Upon Demonstrable, Extrinsic Fraud Upon the Court, and Violations of Florida Statutes § 119.” We treat this filing as a motion to recall the mandate issued in this case on April 4, 2013, and deny the motion. Also, based upon Mr. Ardis’ repeated violation of this court’s prior warnings against additional post-opinion filings in this case, we prohibit Mr. Ardis from proceeding pro se in this court in any case pertaining to Escambia County Case Number 2011-CA-2412 his firing from Pensacola State College (PSC).

By way of background, Mr. Ardis was employed by PSC as a professor and coor[261]*261dinator of the college’s criminal justice program. Mr. Ardis went on sabbatical in the Spring and early Summer of 2010 to obtain a second Master’s degree. Upon his return from sabbatical, Mr. Ardis presented PSC with a degree from an online “diploma mill.” Mr. Ardis was suspended without pay and ultimately fired for submitting this degree, which PSC characterized as “a fraud upon the College and ... misconduct in office.”

Mr. Ardis challenged his firing in an arbitration proceeding at which he was represented by counsel. The arbitrator held a three-day evidentiary hearing and, on November 21, 2011, issued a 35-page decision containing detailed findings of fact and legal conclusions. The arbitrator ruled in favor of Mr. Ardis on the issue of his suspension, finding that it should have been with pay rather than without pay, but the arbitrator ruled against Mr. Ardis on the issue of his firing, finding that PSC established that Mr. Ardis committed misconduct in office based on his “academic dishonesty.”

Mr. Ardis filed a pro se action in circuit court to set aside the arbitration decision and, in response, PSC filed a motion to confirm the decision. The case was assigned Escambia County Case Number 2011-CA-2412. After a hearing, the trial court denied Mr. Ardis’ request to set aside the arbitration decision and granted PSC’s motion to confirm the decision.

In May 2012, Mr. Ardis appealed the order confirming the arbitration decision to this court. In his pro se briefs, Mr. Ardis raised 15 “issues” all of which centered around the alleged undue means by which PSC obtained the arbitration decision in its favor and the alleged bias of the arbitrator. None of the issues raised by Mr. Ardis had merit and, on February 14, 2013, this court per curiam affirmed the circuit court’s order. That should have been the end of the matter, but it was only the beginning.

From February 14 to March 12, 2013, Mr. Ardis filed eleven motions and amended motions seeking a variety of relief, including “reinstatement” of his appeal, rehearing, rehearing en banc, and certification to the Florida Supreme Court. On March 14, 2013, we issued an order directing Mr. Ardis “not [to] file any additional motions, pleadings or papers in this case unless directed by the Court” in order to give us an opportunity to rule on the pending motions. On April 4, 2013, we issued an order denying Mr. Ardis’ post-opinion motions, directing the Clerk to issue the mandate, and advising Mr. Ardis that “[n]o further motions for rehearing or other filings will be considered in this case.” The mandate issued the same day.

Notwithstanding the issuance of the mandate and the directives in the March 14 and April 4, 2013, orders, Mr. Ardis continued to file motions in this case. He filed a motion to stay on April 5; a motion for certification on April 8; a motion to recall the mandate on April 9; and a motion seeking a recall of the mandate, rehearing, rehearing en banc, and certification of conflict on April 15. These filings repeated the frivolous arguments raised by Mr. Ardis in his briefs and his previous post-opinion filings. Accordingly, Mr. Ar-dis was directed to show cause why these filings should not be stricken and why additional sanctions should not be imposed. The response filed by Mr. Ardis included several pages arguing that the order to show cause was not properly issued, but the bulk of the response repeated the arguments made in his previous post-opinion filings. The response failed to show cause why sanctions should not be imposed, and on April 18, 2013, we issued the following order:

[262]*262Upon due consideration of Appellant’s response to the order to show cause dated April 16, 2013, Appellant’s filings on April 5, 8, 9, and 15, 2013, are stricken as a sanction for his excessive, frivolous motion practice in this case and his violation of the orders directing him not to file anything else in this case unless directed by the Court (3/14/13 Order) and informing him upon denial of his motion for rehearing that no further motions for rehearing or other filings will be considered in this case (4/4/13 Order). Additionally, because an order to show cause [on sanctions] is pending against Appellant in case number 1D12-5472, the consideration of whether Appellant should be barred from proceeding pro se in this Court is deferred to the panel in that case. Appellant is cautioned, however, that the filing of any additional motions in this case will result in an order barring him from proceeding pro se in this Court.

(emphasis in original).

Mr. Ardis sought review of this court’s decision affirming the trial court’s order confirming the arbitration decision in both the Florida Supreme Court and the United States Supreme Court. Review was summarily denied by each of those courts. See Ardis v. Pensacola State College, — U.S. -, 133 S.Ct. 2836, 186 L.Ed.2d 893 (2013); Ardis v. Pensacola State College, 123 So.3d 557 (Fla.2013). That certainly should have been the end of this matter, but it was not; Mr. Ardis’ filings and the lower court’s dockets reflect that he is continuing to litigate matters pertaining to the arbitration hearing and his firing in state and federal court. See, e.g., Escam-bia County Case Nos. 2011-CA-2412, 2013-CA-832, 2013-CA-2512; N.D. Fla. Case No. 3:13cv352/MCR/CJK; U.S. 11th Cir. Case No. 13-13114-BB.

With this background in mind, we now turn to Mr. Ardis’s most recent filing, which as noted above, we are treating as a motion to recall this court’s mandate. The motion requests that this court reopen this case because, in 2011, PSC allegedly withheld certain public records “that were crucial to [Mr. Ardis’s] case-in-chief.” Attached to the motion is an “emergency petition” filed with the circuit court on or about October 24, 2013, seeking to reopen the proceedings below and to have the arbitration decision set aside. The motion filed in this court states that the “lower tribunal has refused to take any actions concerning the illegal and unethical actions of [PSC] or its attorneys.” However, it appears from the lower court’s docket that the court has already ruled upon the petition.

Even if we were persuaded that the claims asserted in Mr. Ardis’s current motion might have merit, we do not have jurisdiction to reopen this case to consider those claims. This case became final upon issuance of the mandate and it is well-settled that an appellate court may only recall a mandate during the term of court in which the mandate was issued. See State Famn Mut. Auto. Ins. Co. v. Judges of Dist. Court of Appeal, Fifth Dist., 405 So.2d 980, 982 (Fla.1981). Here, the mandate was issued on April 4, 2013, during the January 2013 term of court.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
128 So. 3d 260, 2013 WL 6635719, 2013 Fla. App. LEXIS 19923, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ardis-v-pensacola-state-college-fladistctapp-2013.