FRANCES E. THIGPIN, AS CLERK OF THE CIRCUIT COURT OF MARION COUNTY, PETITIONER,
v.
SUN BANK OF OCALA, AS TRUSTEE, RESPONDENT

Fla. 5th DCA | 1984-09-20
No. 84-568
SHARP, J., concurs., COWART, J.,- dissents with opinion.
458 So. 2d 315 Florida District Court of Appeal, Fifth District (1984) Caution
Cited by 5 cases

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Synopsis

The Florida Fifth District Court of Appeal reversed a trial court's denial of a motion to dismiss in a negligence action against the Clerk of the Circuit Court, holding that the plaintiff failed to comply with the mandatory statutory condition precedent of obtaining a written denial of its administrative claim before filing suit against a state agency.


Holding

A complaint against a state agency that fails to allege compliance with the condition precedent of obtaining a written denial of the administrative claim must be dismissed. The trial court impermissibly authorized discovery before satisfaction of this mandatory statutory requirement.


Headnotes

[1] A claim against the state may not be instituted until the claimant presents the claim in writing to the appropriate agency and the Department of Insurance, and the claim…

[2] The failure of an agency to make final disposition of a claim within six months after it is filed is deemed a final denial of the claim for purposes of instituting an act…

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Key Quotes

“An action may not be instituted on a claim against the state or one of its agencies or subdivisions unless the claimant presents the claim in writing to the appropriate agency, and also, except as to any claim against a municipality, presents such claim in writing to the Department of Insurance, within three years after such claim accrues and the Department of Insurance or the appropriate agency denies the claim in writing.”

Establishes the mandatory statutory condition precedent that must be satisfied before suit against a state agency

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Facts & Procedural History

Sun Bank of Ocala, as Trustee, filed a negligence action against Frances E. Thigpin, Clerk of the Circuit Court of Marion County, alleging the Clerk f…

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Opinion of the Court
COBB, Chief Judge.

[*316] COBB, Chief Judge.

The defendant, Frances E. Thigpin, as Clerk of the Circuit Court of Marion County, has filed a timely notice of appeal from the trial court’s order denying her motion to dismiss the plaintiffs complaint. Said order is a non-final, non-appealable order. This court, however, by order dated July 5, 1984, is treating this cause as a petition for writ of certiorari.

This cause originated when the plaintiff, Sun Bank of Ocala, as Trustee, filed a negligence action against Frances E. Thig-pin as Clerk of-the Circuit Court of Marion County on February 21, 1984, alleging the Clerk had failed to record a mortgage which Sun Bank, as mortgagee, had submitted for recordation. The Clerk moved to dismiss Sun Bank’s complaint on two grounds: (1) that the plaintiff had failed to meet the three year statute of limitations for filing claims against the state under section 768.28(6)(a), Florida Statutes (1983); (2) that the state had not yet denied the plaintiff’s claim and plaintiff could not file its action until the state had done so. The trial court rendered an order denying the motion to dismiss wherein it stated that the amended complaint created “an issue of fact as to when plaintiff’s cause of action, if any, accrued.” The trial court then stayed further proceedings in the cause other than discovery until the running of the six month period for final disposition of a claim by the agency under section 768.-28(6)(a), Florida Statutes (1983).

Section 768.28(6)(a), Florida Statutes (1983) provides in relevant part:

An action may not be instituted on a claim against the state or one of its agencies or subdivisions unless the claimant presents the claim in writing to the appropriate agency, and also, except as to any claim against a municipality, presents such claim in writing to the Department of Insurance, within three years after such claim accrues and the Department of Insurance or the appropriate agency denies the claim in writing. ... The failure of the Department of Insurance or the appropriate agency to make final disposition of a claim within six months after it is filed shall be deemed a final denial of the claim for purposes of this section....

We agree with the trial court’s determination that the amended complaint created an issue of fact as to date of accrual of the cause of action. It is apparent, however, that the plaintiff instituted this action against the clerk, a state agency, prior to any denial of its written claim as required by the foregoing statute. There was no written denial and six months from filing of the claim had not elapsed at the time suit was filed.

The trial court’s order constitutes a departure from essential requirements of law because of the premature, thus impermissible, discovery it authorizes. See Briggs v. Salcines, 392 So. 2d 263 (Fla. 2d DCA 1980), review denied, 397 So. 2d 779 (Fla.1981), cert. denied, 454 U.S. 815, 102 S.Ct. 92, 70 L.Ed.2d 84 (1981). The proper remedy when a complaint fails to allege performance of a condition precedent is dismissal with leave to amend. Commercial Carrier Corp. v. Indian River County, 371 So. 2d 1010 (Fla.1979); Askew v. County of Volusia, 450 So. 2d 233 (Fla. 5th DCA 1984).

We grant certiorari review, quash the trial court’s order dated March 13, 1984, and remand for dismissal of the amended complaint without prejudice.

WRIT GRANTED.

SHARP, J., concurs.

COWART, J.,- dissents with opinion.

Dissent
COWART, Judge,

COWART, Judge,

dissenting:

The extraordinary writ of certiorari should not be used to review an ordinary interlocutory order denying a motion to dismiss a complaint. Legally and relatively, the judicial error in failing to dismiss a complaint that fails to state a cause of action is not a serious error because it can be rectified on plenary appeal from a final judgment and therefore results in no mis carriage of justice.1 Such use of certiorari to review non-appealable, non-final orders substantially abrogates the limitation, contained in Florida Rule of Appellate Procedure 9.130(a)(3), on the jurisdiction of this court to review such orders by direct appeal.2 Whatever reason3 the supreme court had for not permitting direct interlocutory appeal of all such orders is an even better reason for not selectively reviewing some of them by certiorari.

There is nothing that distinguishes this case from any other case in which the trial court errs by entry of an order denying a motion to dismiss a complaint which fails to state a cause of action. In all such cases the parties have the right to make discovery. Use of discovery before the pleadings are settled is not premature nor impermissible. There is nothing inherently or essentially harmful about the use of discovery in a civil case before the legal sufficiency of the pleadings are settled. The rules of procedure contemplate and explicitly provide for discovery at any time after commencement of the action and even before an action is filed. See Rules 1.310(a), 1.320(a), 1.340(a), 1.350(b) and 1.290(a), Florida Rules of Civil Procedure. Improper discovery in every case is always subject to protective orders in the trial court under Rule 1.280(c) and errors erroneously permitting discovery are properly reviewable by certiorari.4 In Briggs v. Salcines, 392 So. 2d 263 (Fla. 2d DCA 1980), review denied, 397 So. 2d 779 (Fla.1981), cert. denied, 454 U.S. 815, 102 S.Ct. 92, 70 L.Ed.2d 84 (1981), a state attorney (Salcines) caused a trial court to order a private attorney (Briggs) to produce incriminating tape recordings which had been delivered to the private attorney by his client. The threat of a contempt citation against the private attorney and of the violation of the lawyer-client privilege and violation of the client’s constitutional fifth amendment rights, caused the appellate court to find the impending, threatened harm to be imminent, irreparable, and not remediable on appeal and certiorari review was granted and the State’s subpoena quashed. The operative and compelling facts in Briggs do not exist in this case.

Basic concepts of equal protection under the law dictate that legal remedies and review not be selectively or arbitrarily granted and that district courts of appeal should review all orders denying motions to dismiss in civil cases or none of them.5

.A serious judicial error that results in a miscarriage of justice appears to be the criteria for granting certiorari approved in Combs v. State, 436 So. 2d 93 (Fla.1983). Combs stresses that certiorari is a discretionary writ. This means appellate courts have the discretion to deny review by certiorari even in a case that has the criteria justifying review by certiorari but it does not mean appellate courts have the discretion to grant review by certiorari in a case that does not meet the criteria for review by certiorari. It should be noted that Combs was concerned with the certiorari being used as a “second" appeal by a district court of appeal reviewing by certiorari appellate decisions of circuit courts. The problem in this case involves the use of certiorari to review plain, ordinary, routine, everyday, garden variety, run-of-the-mill . non-final orders that this court does not have jurisdiction to review by appeal.

. See, e.g., Page v. Ezell, 452 So. 2d 582 (Fla. 3d DCA 1984).

. The reason is that the appellate work and cost is just not justified because errors in interlocutory orders are usually ultimately rendered inconsequential because at some point they are corrected by the trial court or the parties settle or the case is tried by consent on the proper issues or the plaintiff loses on the merits or otherwise and the issue is never reviewed.

. See Industrial Tractor Company v. Bartlett, 454 So. 2d 1067 (Fla. 5th DCA 1984).

. See Brogan v. Mullins, 452 So. 2d 940 (Fla. 5th DCA 1984).


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Citator

Cited By

  • Wemett v. Duval Cnty., 485 So. 2d 892 (Fla. 1st DCA 1986)
    …ions ran out. Appellant should not have been foreclosed from complying with Florida law and filing a timely proper complaint if he could. See: Lee v. South Broward Hospital District, 473 So. 2d 1322 (Fla. 4th DCA 1985); Thigpin v. Sun Bank of Ocala, 458 So. 2d 315 (Fla. 5th DCA 1984); Askew v. County of Volusia, 450 So. 2d 233 (Fla. 5th DCA 1984). Accordingly, the judgment appealed from should be amended by striking “with prejudice”. Reversed and remanded for proceedings consistent with this opinion. SH…
  • Brown v. City of Miami Beach, 684 F. Supp. 1081 (S.D. Fla. 1988)
    …be dismissed without prejudice in order to allow the plaintiff to comply with the notice requirement, if the time has not expired to provide notice. Wemett v. Duval County, 485 So.2d 892 (Fla. 1st DCA 1986); Thigpin v. Sun Bank of Ocala, 458 So.2d 315 (Fla. 5th DCA 1984); Burkett v. Calhoun County, 441 So.2d 1108 (Fla. 1st DCA 1983). Defendants Parkins and Glassman raise the additional arguments that Count III is barred by the exclusivity defense under the Florida Workers’ Compensation…
  • Diversified Numismatics, Inc. v. City of Orlando, 783 F. Supp. 1337 (M.D. Fla. 1990)
    …hat is brought without first providing statutory notice must be dismissed with leave for plaintiff to amend his complaint to allege compliance with the notice requirement. Commercial Carrier Corp., 371 So.2d at 1023; Thigpin v. Sun Bank, 458 So.2d 315, 316 (Fla.Dist.Ct.App.1984). Because plaintiffs did not state in their complaint whether they have satisfied the notice of claim provisions of section 768.28(6), Count II against the City and against the Mayor and Chief in their official capacities…

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