CAROL LEE CARR, MICHAEL RICHARD CARR, JOSEPH GEORGE KUHNS AND NANCY JOANN KUHNS, PETITIONERS,
v.
THE HONORABLE CHARLES E. MINER, JR., AS CIRCUIT JUDGE OF THE SECOND JUDICIAL CIRCUIT, RESPONDENT

Fla. 1st DCA | 1979-09-26
No. PP-258
ERVIN, J., concurs., BOOTH, J., specially concurs.
375 So. 2d 64 Florida District Court of Appeal, First District (1979) Positive Treatment
Cited by 7 cases

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Synopsis

Defendants sought a writ of prohibition to arrest criminal proceedings based on alleged violation of Florida's speedy trial rule (Rule 3.191), claiming the trial court lost jurisdiction when the 180-day period expired without trial. The appellate court denied the petition, finding no prima facie case for intervention despite the complexity of speedy trial calculations.


Holding

The petition for writ of prohibition was denied. Even assuming defendants' interpretation of the speedy trial rule was correct, they presented no prima facie case for intervention because the State's continuance motion was grounded on exceptional circumstances (inability to secure a crucial witness), which invoked the requirement of trial within 'a reasonable time' rather than the strict 180-day period.


Headnotes

[1] A petition for writ of prohibition seeking to arrest criminal proceedings based on a speedy trial rule violation may be denied if the petitioner fails to present a prima…

[2] A defendant's motion for a continuance on grounds other than those specified in Fla.R.Crim.P. …

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Key Quotes

“it would not seem too harsh to expect prohibition petitioners to give us all their contentions, and all the pertinent record, at once”

The court's criticism of defendants' failure to provide complete record and arguments in their initial petition

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Facts & Procedural History

Defendants' criminal trial was scheduled for June 1, 1979, within the 180-day speedy trial period. On April 20, 1979, defendants obtained a continuanc…

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Opinion of the Court
ROBERT P. SMITH, Jr., Acting Chief Judge.

ROBERT P. SMITH, Jr., Acting Chief Judge.

This is written September 25,1979. Yesterday we denied petitioners’ petition for writ of prohibition, without opinion, and without requiring a response from the State. As the record stood yesterday, petitioners sought to arrest criminal proceedings in the circuit court, scheduled for trial on Thursday of this week, September 27, asserting that the court lost jurisdiction of the case on June 23, 1979, by operation of Fla.R.Crim.P. 3.191. Yesterday’s record showed that the trial court denied petitioners’ motion for discharge, under the speedy trial rule, on August 10. That was the last significant event in the trial court, according to yesterday’s record.

After a futile telephone inquiry of our clerk concerning the reasons for our decision — all such inquiries are and will be futile — petitioners’ counsel rightly perceived that we may have been influenced against intervention by the fact that we were asked to arrest a trial three days hence, by issuing a show cause order which operates as a stay, Fla.R.App.P. 9.100(f), to review a jurisdictional question decided by the circuit court on August 10, six weeks earlier. So today petitioners request a rehearing and that we consider an attached supplement to the prohibition petition, showing that petitioners did not inordinately delay their application to this court; that in fact they petitioned the trial court for rehearing of its August 10 order, and the petition for rehearing was denied only recently, on September 18. We are advised also that the scheduled trial has, since yesterday, been set over to November 15.

Considering that the speedy trial rule is one of some complexity, and that defendants who seek its benefit of discharge must frequently contend, and do contend, that the trial court miscalculated the available time, or inadvertently considered the case as controlled by the wrong subsection of Rule 3.191, or otherwise missed some ineluctable nuance in the rule, it would not seem too harsh to expect prohibition petitioners to give us all their contentions, and all the pertinent record, at once; and to strike the new record and further arguments of these petitioners for violation of Fla.R.App.P. 9.330(a). Nevertheless, we consider the jurisdiction claim, as amended.

Petitioners urge that the speedy trial time period expired June 23, when the last 29 days of the 180-day rule period passed. They urge that the running of the 180-day period was interrupted only, not rendered inconsequential, by the granting of their motion for continuance on April 20, 1979, for the reason that the continuance was sought and granted for a hearing on pre-trial motions. Fla.R.Crim.P. 3.191(d)(2). Petitioners concede that a defendant’s motion for continuance on grounds other than as specified in (d)(2) renders the strict time period of the rule inapplicable. State ex rel. Butler v. Cullen, 253 So. 2d 861 (Fla. 1971). They say otherwise concerning continuances on (d)(2) grounds.

Even assuming, not deciding, that petitioners are correct in this respect, their petition as amended still does not state a prima facie case requiring that we take control of the case for more deliberate consideration, after briefing by the State. The trial was scheduled to begin June 1, well within the interrupted 180-day period. It was the continuance of that scheduled trial, on motion by the State, which permitted the 180-day period, by petitioners’ reckoning, to expire without a trial. That continuance motion, objected to by petitioners, was grounded on the State’s “inability to secure the attendance of a crucial out-of-state witness.” Since petitioners have presented no record of the hearing at which that issue was decided, and have advanced no argument that the court was palpably wrong in granting that continuance, we presume the continuance was for exceptional circumstances as authorized by Rule 3.191(f)(i), therefore that a trial within “a reasonable time” was the only requirement thereafter. State ex rel. Lee v. Harper, 372 So. 2d 1012 (Fla. 1st DCA 1979).

The petition is again DENIED.

ERVIN, J., concurs.

BOOTH, J., specially concurs.

Concurrence
BOOTH, J., specially

BOOTH, J., specially

concurring.

I concur in the result of this opinion under the law as stated in King v. State, 803 So. 2d 889, 391 (Fla. 3d DCA 1974) and State v. Kutz, 354 So. 2d 890 (Fla. 4th DCA 1978). Once a continuance has been properly granted to either the State or the defendant, the quantitative provisions of the speedy trial rule no longer apply and the right to a speedy trial is governed by constitutional safeguards.


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Citator

Cited By

  • …y motion. When the motion was denied and movants elected to challenge that ruling by seeking a writ of prohibition rather than waiting to raise the issue on plenary appeal, a petition should have been filed as soon as practicable. See Carr v. Miner, 375 So. 2d 64 (Fla. 1st DCA 1979).1 We now address the merits of petitioner’s claims. In considering the motions for disqualification, Judge Reynolds could not pass on the truth or falsity of the facts alleged, but could determine whether, if taken as true they…
  • Kardel K. Snow v. State, 352 So. 3d 529 (Fla. 1st DCA 2022)
    …App. P. 9.100(h). But because we were concerned that Snow’s petition seeks review of an order rendered five months earlier, we also directed the parties to address the effect of Snow’s delay in filing the prohibition petition, citing Carr v. Miner, 375 So. 2d 64, 65 (Fla. 1st DCA 1979), which initially denied an emergency prohibition petition filed six weeks after rendition of the order under review but only three days before trial. See also Lewis v. State, 251 So. 3d 310, 311 (Fla. 2d DCA 2018) (commenting…
  • State v. Daniels, 413 So. 2d 1256 (Fla. 5th DCA 1982)
    …rder granting appellant’s motion for discharge is reversed and this cause is remanded for further proceedings. REVERSED AND REMANDED. DAUKSCH, C. J., and COBB, J., concur. . Fla.R.Crim.P. 3.191. . Fla.R.Crim.P. 3.191(a)(1). . See Carr v. Miner, 375 So. 2d 64 (Fla. 1st DCA 1979) (Booth, J., specially concurring); State Ex Rel. Lee v. Harper, 372 So. 2d 1012 (Fla. 1st DCA 1979); State v. Kurtz, 354 So. 2d 890 (4th DCA), cert. denied, 360 So. 2d 1249 (Fla.1978); King v. State, 303 So. 2d 389 (Fla. 3d DCA 1…

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