City of Miami Beach v. Lisa Boalt Brockhouse

• Court: District Court of Appeal of Florida
• Decided: June 19, 2024
• Docket: 2023-0568
• Status: Published

Opinion

Third District Court of Appeal State of Florida

Opinion filed June 19, 2024. Not final until disposition of timely filed motion for rehearing.

________________

No. 3D23-0568 Lower Tribunal No. B22-12546 ________________

City of Miami Beach, Appellant,

vs.

Lisa Boalt Brockhouse, Appellee.

An Appeal from the County Court for Miami-Dade County, Julie Harris Nelson, Judge.

Ricardo J. Dopico, City Attorney for City of Miami Beach, Robert F. Rosenwald, Jr., Chief Deputy City Attorney, and Woody Clermont, Assistant City Attorney; Ashley Moody, Attorney General, and Ivy R. Ginsberg, Assistant Attorney General, for appellant.

Carlos J. Martinez, Public Defender, and Andrew Stanton, Assistant Public Defender, for appellee.

Before FERNANDEZ, SCALES and BOKOR, JJ.

BOKOR, J. On February 7, 2023, the trial court set aside a bench warrant issued

against Lisa Boalt Brockhouse for failure to appear at a prior hearing or

arraignment. At the same February 7 hearing, the trial court orally set the

case for report. The municipal prosecutor for the City of Miami Beach was

neither present nor received notice of the trial court’s setting the case for

report. Recalling the case later in the morning, still with no municipal

prosecutor present and still without providing notice to the City, the trial court

orally dismissed the case on its own motion, later memorialized in a written

order. The City timely appealed. As in City of Miami Beach v. Cosme, 49 Fla.

L. Weekly D322 (Fla. 3d DCA Feb. 7, 2024), the trial court’s dismissal on its

own motion and without notice or opportunity to be heard constituted a

fundamental depravation of the City’s due process rights. We therefore

vacate the dismissal and remand for further proceedings.

Reversed and remanded.