FLORIDA DEPT., OF OFFENDER REHAB. v. Jerry

353 So. 2d 1230
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedJanuary 10, 1978
DocketFF-303
StatusPublished
Cited by57 cases

This text of 353 So. 2d 1230 (FLORIDA DEPT., OF OFFENDER REHAB. v. Jerry) 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
FLORIDA DEPT., OF OFFENDER REHAB. v. Jerry, 353 So. 2d 1230 (Fla. Ct. App. 1978).

Opinion

353 So.2d 1230 (1978)

The FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF OFFENDER REHABILITATION, Petitioner,
v.
Leroy JERRY and the Florida Division of Administrative Hearings, Respondents.

No. FF-303.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, First District.

January 10, 1978.
Rehearing Denied February 7, 1978.

Earl H. Archer, III, Tallahassee, for petitioner.

John T. Chandler, Gainesville, for respondents.

ERVIN, Judge.

Leroy Jerry, an inmate in the state correctional institution, was charged by the Department of Offender Rehabilitation (DOR) with unarmed assault in violation of Florida Administrative Code Rule 33-3.08(2).[1] He was found guilty, placed in disciplinary *1231 confinement and served his penalty. He then attacked the above Rule in a Section 120.56,[2] Florida Statutes (Supp. 1976), proceeding. Rule 33-3.08 sets forth the procedure by which an inmate is subjected to disciplinary confinement and forfeiture of gain-time. Authority for the Rule is derived from Section 944.28, Florida Statutes (1975), which allows forfeiture of all or part of gain-time earned by a prisoner should he be guilty of certain specified acts, including assault.[3]

Jerry's petition for an administrative determination that Rule 33-3.08(2) was invalid alleged he was a person substantially affected since he had been charged with an infraction of the Rule, assault, and as a result his substantial interests in retaining accrued gain-time and freedom from disciplinary confinement were at issue. He also alleged he was substantially affected because the maximum penalty to which he could be exposed was disciplinary confinement for 60 days and 180 days loss of gain-time. The hearing examiner found Rule 33-3.08(2) invalid for failure to meet the procedural guidelines set forth in Section 120.57, Florida Statutes (Supp. 1976). He concluded that since Section 120.72(1), Florida Statutes (Supp. 1976), makes uniform the rulemaking and adjudicative procedures used by the administrative agencies of the state, there was no exemption to DOR from the requirements of the new APA as found in Chapter 120.[4] Consequently, the Department is an agency as defined by Section 120.52(1)(b). By juxtaposing certain provisions of the Rule with Section 120.57,[5] he found the Rule conflicted with pertinent portions of the statute and could not stand.

*1232 The hearing officer's order involves matters of great substance; nevertheless, for the reasons stated infra, it is not necessary for us to address the primary question raised as to the validity of the Rule since Jerry has not met the threshold requirement of standing.

Our efforts to determine what occurred at the hearing before the disciplinary team are thwarted because there is no record of those proceedings. It was not established Jerry ever made a request for a Section 120.57 hearing during the disciplinary proceedings. We do know however that at the time of the hearing before the administrative examiner, Jerry had completely served his disciplinary confinement. But we do not know whether Jerry suffered any loss of gain-time. The only inescapable conclusion which can be reached from the administrative proceedings is that the hearing examiner found Jerry has standing because he is a member of the prison class, has been subjected to alleged invalid procedures in the past and may possibly in the future be subjected to such procedures. Observe the following from the hearing officer's order:

"Respondent argues that Petitioner has no standing to seek an administrative determination of the validity of the Rule because he had already been found guilty of an infraction under the Rule and been subjected to discipline prior to the final hearing in this cause and thus it is not now affected by the Rule. The Hearing Officer specifically rejects this argument. The Rule applies to inmates in the correctional institutions of this state. Petitioner is such an inmate. Petitioner has been subjected to the procedures set forth in the Rule and may at any time in the future be again subjected to those procedures. Therefore, Petitioner's interest is certainly a timely and current interest and he should not be required, as argued by Respondent, to again violate the provisions of the Rule in order to gain the requisite interest necessary to challenge the validity of the Rule.
* * * * * *
"... [I]t appears that petitioner's interest in loss of gain-time having real substance and being sufficiently embraced within the Fourteenth Amendment `liberty' to entitle him to due process, is a substantial interest as that term is used in Section 120.57, F.S. It follows that a Rule such as that challenged herein, which sets forth the procedure by which Petitioner's substantial interest shall be determined and his rights protected, has substantial affect upon Petitioner entitling him to challenge its validity under Section 120.56, F.S."

Any attempt to comprehend in depth the meaning of standing involves a careful study of the pertinent provisions of the new APA, compared with the 1961 Act as well as a comparison with the federal APA and the cases interpreting it.

The relief Jerry seeks is in essence an administrative declaration of his rights as affected by the DOR Rule. Florida's APA provides two distinct types of declaratory statements: (1) A declaratory statement involving the applicability of a statute, rule or order as provided by Section 120.565, and (2) a declaratory statement on the validity of a rule or proposed rule, provided by Sections 120.54 and .56.

Section 120.30, Florida Statutes (1973), repealed by Ch. 74-310, Section 4, Laws of Florida, effective January 1, 1975, permitted any "affected party" to obtain a judicial declaration of the validity of any rule of an administrative agency by bringing a declaratory judgment action in the circuit court of the county in which such party resides.[6]

The legislature in enacting Sections 120.54(4)(a) and 120.56, employed more restrictive language, "substantially affected", than it did in enacting Section 120.30. The legislature must be presumed to have intended a different result by employing language describing a more limited scope of persons affected in a given situation and less restrictive language in other situations. For example, Section 120.54(3) permits all *1233 "affected persons" an opportunity to present evidence and argument on all issues under consideration appropriate to inform the agency of their contentions within 14 days after date of publication of the notice of a proposed rule.

There are very few Florida cases which have addressed the question of standing under the 1974 APA. In A.S.I., Inc. v. Florida Public Service Commission, 334 So.2d 594 (Fla. 1976), our Supreme Court held that a competitor who filed a protest before the Public Service Commission to an air freight delivery company's application to transport delayed, misplaced and/or misrouted baggage from Jacksonville International Airport to specified points in northeast Florida had no standing as a substantially interested party within the meaning of Section 120.57, even assuming the competitor, A.S.I., would experience competition from the air freight delivery company's operation under its for hire permit. Later in Gadsden State Bank v. Lewis, 348 So.2d 343 (Fla.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Abbott Laboratories v. Mylan Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
15 So. 3d 642 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 2009)
Jacoby v. FLORIDA BD. OF MEDICINE
917 So. 2d 358 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 2005)
ENVIRONMENTAL CONFED. OF SOUTHWEST FL., INC. v. IMC Phosphates, Inc.
857 So. 2d 207 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 2003)
NAACP, INC. v. Florida Bd. of Regents
822 So. 2d 1 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 2002)
Florida Bd. of Med. v. Florida Academy of Cosmetic Surgery, Inc.
808 So. 2d 243 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 2002)
Major v. Florida Department of Corrections
689 So. 2d 437 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1997)
Humana of Florida, Inc. v. McKaughan
652 So. 2d 852 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1995)
Dept. of Prof. Reg., Bd. of Dentistry v. Dental Hygienist Ass'n
612 So. 2d 646 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1993)
Endress v. FLA. DEPT. OF CORRECTIONS
612 So. 2d 645 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1993)
Department of Corrections v. Van Poyck
610 So. 2d 1333 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1992)
Home Builders and Contractors Ass'n v. DCA
585 So. 2d 965 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1991)
Phibro Resources Corp. v. STATE, DER
579 So. 2d 118 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1991)
Rabren v. DEPT. OF PROF. REGULATION
568 So. 2d 1283 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1990)
Sandsbury Lee v. Richard L. Dugger
902 F.2d 822 (Eleventh Circuit, 1990)
State, Bd. of Optometry v. FLA. SOC. OF OPHTH.
538 So. 2d 878 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1989)
Fla. Soc. of Ophthalmology v. State, Bd. of Optometry
532 So. 2d 1279 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1988)
Challancin v. Florida Land & Water Adjudicatory Commission
515 So. 2d 1288 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1987)
Matter of Surface Water Mgmt. Permit
515 So. 2d 1288 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1987)
Boca Raton Mausoleum, Inc. v. STATE, DEPT. OF BANKING AND FINANCE
511 So. 2d 1060 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1987)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
353 So. 2d 1230, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/florida-dept-of-offender-rehab-v-jerry-fladistctapp-1978.