VC v. Ferguson

422 So. 2d 861
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedApril 20, 1982
Docket82-323
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 422 So. 2d 861 (VC v. Ferguson) 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
VC v. Ferguson, 422 So. 2d 861 (Fla. Ct. App. 1982).

Opinion

422 So.2d 861 (1982)

V.C., a Juvenile, Petitioner,
v.
The Honorable Ralph B. FERGUSON, Jr., Judge of the Circuit Court of the 11TH Judicial Circuit in and for Dade County, Florida, Juvenile Division, Respondent.

No. 82-323.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Third District.

April 20, 1982.

*862 Bennett H. Brummer, Public Defender and Andrew M. Kassier, Asst. Public Defender, for petitioner.

Jim Smith, Atty. Gen., and Calianne P. Lantz, Asst. Atty. Gen., for respondent.

Before SCHWARTZ, DANIEL S. PEARSON and JORGENSON, JJ.

DANIEL S. PEARSON, Judge.

We have before us the juvenile's petition seeking the issuance of a writ prohibiting further delinquency proceedings on the ground that he was entitled to discharge when not brought to trial within the time prescribed in Florida Rule of Juvenile Procedure 8.180. The State initially contends that review of the trial court's denial of discharge must await the outcome of the case and be by direct appeal of a delinquency adjudication if one results. Thus, the State asks us to deny extraordinary relief without regard to the merits of the juvenile's claim. We reject the State's jurisdictional contention and, on the merits, grant the writ.

I.

The Fourth District Court of Appeal, in a spate of recent decisions, holds that prohibition does not lie to remedy a speedy trial rule violation. See Hunter v. Franza, 405 So.2d 1035 (Fla. 4th DCA 1981); Lowe v. Price, 405 So.2d 308 (Fla. 4th DCA 1981); Sherrod v. Franza, 396 So.2d 1136 (Fla. 4th DCA 1981), review granted, No. 60,683 (Fla. January 21, 1982). In our view, these holdings, which stand alone, depart, contrary to the rule of Hoffman v. Jones, 280 So.2d 431 (Fla. 1973), from well entrenched Supreme Court authority. See State ex rel. Soodhalter v. Baker, 248 So.2d 468 (Fla. 1971); Pena v. Schultz, 245 So.2d 49 (Fla. 1971); Wincor v. Turner, 215 So.2d 3 (Fla. 1968); Dickoff v. Dewell, 152 Fla. 240, 9 So.2d 804 (1942); Woodward v. Petteway, 123 Fla. 892, 168 So. 806 (1935); Feger v. Fish, 106 Fla. 564, 143 So. 605 (1932). Even if it were arguable that the foregoing Supreme Court decisions are distinguishable and that, therefore, Hoffman v. Jones, supra, is no barrier to change, we are not persuaded that the distinctions made by the Fourth District in its seminal case of Sherrod v. Franza, supra, lead to the conclusion reached by that court that:

"[T]he preferable rule would seem to be that neither mandamus nor prohibition is an appropriate medium for review of a trial court's order denying a motion for discharge based upon a violation of the speedy trial rule. Mandamus lies to compel the performance of a ministerial act. Its application in a speedy trial rule context assumes a lack of jurisdiction. Prohibition is the appropriate means for preventing a court from proceeding where it has no jurisdiction or where it seeks to act in excess of its jurisdiction. *863 "While violation of an accused's constitutional right to speedy trial may, under appropriate circumstances, divest the court of its jurisdiction, it seems clear that violation of the procedural rule is of an entirely different character. The accused may waive the strictures of the rule expressly or, by his actions, toll the running of the period. Such characteristics are suggestive of authority rather than power. It is power that is the essence of jurisdiction." Id. at 1140.

First, the line between the constitutional speedy trial violation and the rule or statute violation is not as bright as Sherrod suggests. While it certainly may be said that the issuance of the writ of prohibition in Pena v. Schultz, supra, was in respect to a purely constitutional claim that the right to a speedy trial had been denied, the same cannot be said of the writs issuing in Wincor, Dickoff and Feger. In each of the latter cases, the defendant-petitioner, having complied with then applicable speedy trial statutes by filing demands for trial in each of the prescribed number of successive terms of court, sought discharge after not having been brought to trial as the statute required during the last of those terms.[1] Admittedly, the cases advert to a denial of the petitioners' constitutional rights, but they do so only in the sense that the statute involved was designed to effectuate or insure the constitutional right, see Wincor v. Turner, supra; was a legislative determination of the maximum delay which would be tolerated under the Constitution, see Feger v. Fish, supra; or was a manner of safe-guarding the constitutional right, see Dickoff v. Dewell, supra. See also Turner v. Olliff, 281 So.2d 384 (Fla. 1st DCA 1973), and State ex rel. Reynolds v. Willis, 255 So.2d 287 (Fla. 1st DCA 1971) (both noting that speedy trial rule represents enlightened effort to implement constitutionally guaranteed right to a speedy trial). Thus, extraordinary relief was accorded in each of these cases because the speedy trial statute, "declaratory of the rights guaranteed under the constitutional provisions," see State ex rel. Curley v. McGeachy, 149 Fla. 633, 641, 6 So.2d 823, 827 (1942), had been violated. Since speedy trial rules are, in like manner, merely declaratory of the underlying constitutional right to a speedy trial, it would appear that when a defendant asserts his right to discharge because of a rule violation, under the authority of Wincor, Dickoff and Feger, the constitutional right to a speedy trial is implicated, and a defendant would be entitled to extraordinary relief to enforce that right.[2]

Sherrod insists, however, that Wincor, et al. are cases involving the assertion of a constitutional right and are thus distinguishable from a rule case. While, in our view, the distinction is contrived, since clearly no constitutional claim independent of the statute was made in those cases, it may be, nevertheless, that any continued reliance on Wincor, Dickoff and Feger is unjustified in light of State ex rel. Soodhalter v. Baker, supra. In Soodhalter,[3] the Supreme Court addressed its jurisdiction to entertain petitions for writs of prohibition involving claims of speedy trial denial:

"Prior to the 1956 Florida constitutional revision this Court could have entertained the grant of an original writ of prohibition in this case, through language of Article V, Section 5, then reading: "The court shall have power to issue writs of *864 mandamus, certiorari, prohibition, quo warranto, habeas corpus, and also all writs necessary or proper to the complete exercise of its appellate jurisdiction.' (Emphasis added). See Feger v. Fish, [supra].
"The 1956 Article V revision, however, created a fundamental change in the Court's constitutional power to accept an original writ of prohibition through Section 4(2), thereof, not stating: `The supreme court may issue * * * writs of prohibition to * * * the trial courts when questions are involved upon which a direct appeal to the supreme court is allowed as a matter of right.' Subsequent to this revision, this Court has entertained original writs of prohibition in speedy trial cases only where it was asserted that a constitutional right to speedy trial, independent of rights under [§ 915.01, Fla. Stat. (1970)] was violated.[4] See Pena v. Schultz,

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Bluebook (online)
422 So. 2d 861, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/vc-v-ferguson-fladistctapp-1982.