State Department of Highway Safety & Motor Vehicles v. Saxlehner

96 So. 3d 1002, 2012 Fla. App. LEXIS 13496, 2012 WL 3316828
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedAugust 15, 2012
DocketNo. 3D11-3305
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 96 So. 3d 1002 (State Department of Highway Safety & Motor Vehicles v. Saxlehner) 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
State Department of Highway Safety & Motor Vehicles v. Saxlehner, 96 So. 3d 1002, 2012 Fla. App. LEXIS 13496, 2012 WL 3316828 (Fla. Ct. App. 2012).

Opinion

EMAS, J.

In this second-tier certiorari review, the State of Florida, Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (“the Department”) petitions this court for a writ of certiorari. The Department asserts that the circuit court, in its appellate capacity, departed from the essential requirements of law in granting Andrew Saxlehner’s petition for writ of certiorari and reversing the Department’s order sustaining the suspension of Saxlehner’s driver’s license. For the reasons which follow, we grant the petition and quash the opinion of the circuit court.

FACTS AND BACKGROUND

On October 9, 2009, Saxlehner was driving his vehicle when he was stopped by Officer Wheeler of the Coral Gables Police Department. Officer Wheeler stopped the vehicle because it matched an earlier “be on the lookout” (“BOLO”) dispatch from the Coral Gables Police Department. Officers Rodriguez and Perez soon arrived on the scene, observed Saxlehner’s condition and administered field sobriety exercises, which Saxlehner performed poorly. Officer Rodriguez placed Saxlehner under arrest for driving under the influence, and transported him to the station. Saxlehner submitted to a breathalyzer test, which revealed his alcohol level was twice the legal limit. As a result, his driving privileges were suspended for six months.

Saxlehner requested a formal administrative review of his suspension, which was held on December 17, 2009. Present at the formal review hearing were Officers Rodriguez and Perez, as well as counsel for Saxlehner. The hearing officer was presented with several documents, including the probable cause affidavit of Officer Rodriguez, the Alcohol Influence Report, an Implied Consent form, a Miranda1 rights waiver form, a breath alcohol test affidavit and an inspection report for the instrument used to measure Saxlehner’s breath-alcohol level.2

Officer Rodriguez and Officer Perez testified at the hearing and were questioned by Saxlehner’s counsel.3 The evidence at the hearing established the following: On October 9, 2009, a BOLO was issued to Coral Gables police officers4 for a white [1004]*1004male driver in a maroon Mercedes Benz with front-end damage and smoke emanating from the vehicle. The BOLO included the license plate number and indicated this vehicle was suspected to have been involved in a hit-and-run accident and had last been seen near the Biltmore Hotel. Officer Wheeler of the Coral Gables Police Department observed a vehicle matching the BOLO (including a match of the license plate) driven by a white male turn into the Biltmore Hotel parking lot, and conducted a traffic stop of the vehicle. The vehicle was being driven by Saxleh-ner.5 A second officer (Officer Rodriguez) also heard the BOLO and soon arrived at the scene. At that point, Saxlehner was no longer in the vehicle, but was standing outside the car. Officer Rodriguez observed that Saxlehner had a bloody nose, bloodshot and watery eyes, and a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage on his breath. Saxlehner’s vehicle had fresh front end damage and was leaking fluids from the radiator. A third officer (Officer Perez), arrived at the scene and administered field sobriety exercises to Saxlehner; when Saxlehner failed to perform those exercises to standard, Officer Rodriguez arrested Saxlehner for driving under the influence, and a subsequent breath test revealed that Saxlehner had an unlawful blood-alcohol level.

At the conclusion of the evidentiary hearing, counsel for Saxlehner moved to invalidate the suspension based on Officer Wheeler’s failure to appear, arguing he was the only officer who observed Saxleh-ner behind the wheel, and thus was an essential witness to establishing the validity of the initial stop. The hearing officer disagreed that Officer Wheeler was an essential witness, but gave Saxlehner an opportunity to seek enforcement of the subpoena through the circuit court. Thereafter, the hearing officer sustained the suspension of Saxlehner’s driver’s license.

Saxlehner did not seek enforcement of the subpoena, but instead filed a petition for writ of certiorari in the circuit court, raising several grounds. The circuit court granted the petition on the ground that “the only evidence presented at the hearing to establish that Saxlehner was driving or in actual physical control of the vehicle came from Officers Rodriguez and Perez, which amounted to hearsay evidence.” The circuit court found that this hearsay evidence was not corroborated by competent substantial evidence and therefore the license suspension could not be sustained. For this proposition, the circuit court cited Spicer v. Metropolitan Dade County, 458 So.2d 792, 794 (Fla. 3d DCA 1984), which held that hearsay evidence is generally admissible in administrative hearings, but “hearsay evidence alone is not sufficient to support a finding unless it would be admissible over objection in civil actions.”6

[1005]*1005The Department filed this petition for writ of certiorari asserting that the circuit court failed to apply the correct law relating to administrative reviews of a driver’s license suspension, and failed to acknowledge and apply statutory and case law expressly allowing admission of evidence under the Fellow Officer Rule. Saxlehner counters that the Department has not established a basis for relief under the limited scope of second-tier certiorari review.

SCOPE AND STANDARD OF REVIEW

Because this case involves second-tier certiorari, our scope and standard of review is quite limited: “As a case travels up the judicial ladder, review should consistently become narrower, not broader.” Haines City Cmty. Dev. v. Heggs, 658 So.2d 523, 530 (Fla.1995). A district court of appeal may not utilize second-tier review to correct simple legal error. To permit such a broad scope of review would, in essence, permit a second appeal, nullifying the narrowing scope of review described in Haines. As the Supreme Court observed recently:

[W]hen a district court considers a petition for second-tier certiorari review, the “inquiry is limited to whether the circuit court afforded procedural due process and whether the circuit court applied the correct law,” or, as otherwise stated, departed from the essential requirements of law.

Custer Med. Ctr. v. United Auto. Ins. Co., 62 So.3d 1086, 1092 (Fla.2010) (quoting Haines, 658 So.2d at 530).

ANALYSIS

The circuit court’s decision constituted a clear departure from the essential requirements of law. The circuit court failed to apply the correct statutory and administrative provisions governing formal review hearings for suspension of one’s driving privileges. The specific and relevant provisions are found at section 322.2615, Florida Statutes (2010), and Florida Administrative Code Chapter 15A-6.013.

Section 322.2615 provides in pertinent part:

(6)(a) If the person whose license was suspended requests a formal review, the department must schedule a hearing to be held within 30 days after such request is received by the department and must notify the person of the date, time, and place of the hearing.

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

Related

Richard Harper v. City of Key Colony Beach
District Court of Appeal of Florida, 2024
State, Department of Highway Safety & Motor Vehicles v. Hartzog
148 So. 3d 816 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 2014)
State Department of Highway Safety v. Edgell-Gallowhur
114 So. 3d 1081 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 2013)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
96 So. 3d 1002, 2012 Fla. App. LEXIS 13496, 2012 WL 3316828, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-department-of-highway-safety-motor-vehicles-v-saxlehner-fladistctapp-2012.