LAURENE CAPONE, PETITIONER,
v.
FLORIDA BOARD OF REGENTS, RESPONDENT

Fla. 4th DCA | 2000-12-27
No. 4D00-3827
POLEN and KLEIN, JJ., concur.
774 So. 2d 825 Florida District Court of Appeal, Fourth District (2000) Caution
Cited by 3 cases

AI-generated. These summaries, headnotes, and key points are machine-generated and may contain errors or omissions. Always verify against the full opinion text below. Not legal advice.

Synopsis

The Fourth District Court of Appeal dismissed a petition for writ of certiorari as untimely filed, clarifying that its administrative policy of accepting papers filed before 9:00 a.m. as filed on the previous day applies only to non-jurisdictional papers and cannot extend constitutional jurisdictional deadlines for original writs.


Holding

The court held that the previous-day filing procedure applies only to non-jurisdictional papers and cannot extend jurisdictional deadlines for original writs. Courts are not authorized to extend time limits for filing notices of appeal or petitions for extraordinary writs, as the constitutional authority to adopt procedural rules rests exclusively with the supreme court.


Headnotes

[1] A court's policy of accepting papers filed with the Clerk by 9:00 a.m. …

[2] Jurisdictional time limits for filing notices of appeal and petitions for extraordinary writs cannot be extended by court rules or practices.

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Key Quotes

“Our policy was adopted as a convenience for parties and their lawyers to avoid the expense of using a delivery service or driving to our court from distant parts of the district when filing routine, non-jurisdictional papers such as briefs, responses to orders, etc. It was not our intent to apply this procedure to jurisdictional papers like notices of appeal or petitions for extraordinary writs that are governed by a jurisdictional requirement of filing on or before a certain date.”

Establishes that the court's administrative filing policy was never intended to apply to jurisdictional deadlines

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Facts & Procedural History

Laurene Capone filed a petition for writ of certiorari on October 26, 2000, before 9:00 a.m., which the Clerk's Office stamped as filed on October 25,…

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Opinion of the Court
WARNER, C.J.

WARNER, C.J.

We dismiss this petition for writ of certiorari as untimely filed. We write to explain to the bar that our policy of accepting papers filed with the Clerk by 9:00 a.m. as having been actually filed on the previous day cannot extend the jurisdictional time limits for the filing of petitions for certiorari, and other original writs.

On October 26, 2000, our Clerk’s Office received the instant petition for writ of certiorari before 9:00 a.m. The petition received a filing date stamp for the previous day, October 25, 2000, a date thirty days after rendition of the order to which the instant petition pertains. The filing on October 26, 2000, was untimely. See Fla. R.App.P. 9.100(c)(1). In filing this petition on the thirty-first day, it appears that the petitioner erroneously took advantage of a policy of this court to accommodate lawyers filing briefs and other non-jurisdictional papers.

For many years, this court had a drop box in which papers could be delivered to the court after hours. Papers so delivered would, if placed in the box before 7:30 a.m., be stamped as filed the previous business day. The box was routinely opened at 7:30 a.m., one-half hour before the Clerk’s Office actually opens for business. Only papers actually placed in the box before 7:30 a.m. were considered filed as of the previous day. Because of our concerns for the security of people using this box, however, we eliminated it some time ago and adopted in its place a policy of accepting papers filed with the Clerk by 9:00 a.m. as having been filed on the previous day. We intend to continue with this latter procedure.

However, some lawyers are delivering original proceeding papers, such as notices of appeal, petitions for certiorari, and the like, to our Clerk before 9:00 a.m. and requesting that such papers be deemed filed as of the previous day. Our policy was adopted as a convenience for parties and their lawyers to avoid the expense of using a delivery service or driving to our court from distant parts of the district when filing routine, non-jurisdictional papers such as briefs, responses to orders, etc. It was not our intent to apply this procedure to jurisdictional papers like notices of appeal or petitions for extraordinary writs that are governed by a jurisdictional requirement of filing on or before a certain date. We hereby reconfirm that intention. The previous-day filing procedure applies only to non-jurisdictional papers.

While this court may adopt local rules and practices that pertain to non-jurisdictional matters within its discretion, we may not usurp the constitutional power of the supreme court to “adopt rules for the practice and procedure in all courts including the time for seeking appellate review.” Art. V, § 2(a), Fla. Const. Neither trial nor appellate courts in this state are authorized to extend the time for filing notices of appeal, “no matter what reason or method is employed in an attempt to do so.” Congregation Temple De Hirsch of Seattle, Washington v. Aronson, 128 So. 2d 585, 586 (Fla.1961).

The petition is dismissed.

POLEN and KLEIN, JJ., concur.


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Citator

Cited By

  • Strax Rejuvenation & Aesthetics Inst., Inc. v. Shield, 24 So. 3d 666 (Fla. 4th DCA 2009)
    …placed in a post office box within the required time period is not sufficient.” Id. at 88. Unlike the instant case, in Harrell there was no dispute that the clerk’s time stamp was accurate. Shield also relies on Capone v. Florida Board of Regents, 774 So. 2d 825, 826 (Fla. 4th DCA 2000). The issue in Capone was whether the court’s policy of accepting papers filed with the clerk by 9:00 a.m. as having been actually filed the previous day, can extend the jurisdictional time limits for the filing of petitions…
  • State v. Melendez, 132 So. 3d 1237 (Fla. 3d DCA 2014)
    …Worth, 789 So. 2d 1173, 1175 (Fla. 4th DCA 2001). As such, an untimely Petition divests this court of jurisdiction over the untimely filed Petition and it should be dismissed. See Joannou, 353 So. 2d at 164; Capone v. [*1238] Florida Bd. of Regents, 774 So. 2d 825, 827 (Fla. 4th DCA 2000) (reaffirming that the Fourth District Court of Appeal’s discretionary and convenience practice of accepting pleadings as timely filed if filed by 9:00 in the morning the day after pleading was due, was never intended to appl…
  • Navellier v. Town OF Manalapan, 953 So. 2d 739 (Fla. 4th DCA 2007)
    …POLEN, J. The above-styled petition for writ of cer-tiorari is hereby dismissed as untimely. See Fla. RApp. P. 9.100(c)(1); Capone v. Fla. Bd. of Regents, 774 So. 2d 825, 826 (Fla. 4th DCA 2000). Petitioners argue we should deem their petition timely filed (the last day for filing was Friday, January 19, 2007, and it was not filed until Monday, January 22) because they were delayed in being able to timely file, in…

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