DALE WOODWARD AND DALE WOODWARD FUNERAL HOME, APPELLANTS,
v.
DEPARTMENT OF PROFESSIONAL REGULATION, BOARD OF FUNERAL DIRECTORS AND EMBALMERS, APPELLEES
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The Florida District Court of Appeal reversed the Board of Funeral Directors' disciplinary order against a funeral home and its director because the Board failed to adequately explain its rejection of the hearing officer's factual findings and lacked record support for its professional conclusions about what constitutes the practice of funeral directing.
When an administrative board rejects a hearing officer's factual findings, the hearing officer's findings prevail unless the board provides adequate elaboration of its reasoning and record support for its contrary conclusions.
[1] When an administrative hearing officer's factual findings conflict with an administrative board's contrary view of the record, the hearing officer's findings prevail unle…
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceThe Board of Funeral Directors disciplined a licensed funeral home and its director by suspending their licenses and imposing fines, based on findings…
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ROBÉRT P. SMITH, Jr, Chief Judge.
In its final order disciplining this licensed funeral home and its licensed director, by license suspension and fines, the Board rejects certain findings of fact and the ultimate conclusion of the DOAH hearing officer to whom the matter was referred for hearing, and who upon the evidence recommended dismissal of the charges.
The hearing officer and the Board disagree on the key finding or conclusion, whether the licensees unlawfully “knowingly employed] unlicensed persons in the practice of funeral directing .... ” We need not rehearse the evidence. To the extent the critical issue was one of fact, conventionally considered, the hearing officer’s finding prevails notwithstanding the Board’s contrary view of the record, which in this case is not elaborated. Bekiempis v. Department of Professional Regulation, 421 So. 2d 693 (Fla. 2d DCA 1982). To the extent the issue is one on which we should defer to the Board’s professional expertise, the order comes to us without the necessary elucidation of the Board’s definition of “the practice of funeral directing,” and without a record foundation that would support the views attributed to the Board upon this appeal. McDonald v. Department of Banking and Finance, 346 So. 2d 569 (Fla. 1st DCA 1977).
The Board’s order, consequently, is REVERSED, and the charges are DISMISSED.
SHIVERS and WIGGINTON, JJ, concur.
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Citator
Cited By
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Sammie Lee Davis v. Dep't of Prof'l Reg., 457 So. 2d 1074 (Fla. 1st DCA 1984)…ut the necessary elucidation. of the Board’s definition of ‘the practice of funeral directing’ and without a record foundation that would support the views attributed to the Board upon this appeal.” Woodward v. Department of Professional Regulation, 432 So. 2d 146, 147 (Fla. 1st DCA 1983). In license revocation proceedings, case law requires strict construction of statutes and specificity of charges. In the case before us, the Board’s Count Three charges do not comport with the hearing officer’s findings of…
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Dade Cnty. Police Benevolent Ass'n v. City OF Homestead & the Pub. Emps. Relations Comm'n, 444 So. 2d 465 (Fla. 3d DCA 1984)…Fla. 3d DCA 1983) (whether agency’s mistaken belief that school was a public school could provide basis to estop agency from denying teacher retirement credit); Woodward v. Department of Professional Regulation, Bd. of Funeral Directors & Embalmers, 432 So. 2d 146 (Fla. 1st DCA 1983) (whether licensees knowingly employed unlicensed persons in the practice of funeral directing); Aquino v. Department of Professional Regulation, 430 So. 2d 598 (Fla. 4th DCA 1983) (whether sufficient time had passed to overcome p…
Authorities Cited
- McDONALD v. Dep't OF Banking & Fin., 346 So. 2d 569 (Fla. 1st DCA 1977)
- Bekiempis v. Dep't OF Prof'l Reg., 421 So. 2d 693 (Fla. 2d DCA 1982)