december 2012 - Hillsborough County Bar Association

CONFLICT JURISDICTION IN THE FLORIDA SUPREME COURT
Appellate Practice Section
Chairs: Kristin A. Norse - Kynes, Markman & Felman, P.A.; and Ezequiel Lugo - Butler Pappas Weihmuller Katz Craig LLP
When a district
court of appeal
issues an opinion
unfavorable to a
practitioner’s case, the practitioner
may believe he or she can appeal
the opinion to the Florida Supreme
Court. However, the Florida
Constitution grants only limited
jurisdiction to the Florida Supreme
Court to review district court
decisions. The five categories
of jurisdiction are 1) mandatory
appellate jurisdiction, 2) discretionary
review jurisdiction, 3) discretionary
original jurisdiction, 4) exclusive
jurisdiction,
and 5) advisory
opinions. See
Fla. Const.
art. V, § 3(b).
Many of these
jurisdictional
categories are
specific and
limited in scope.
For example,
mandatory
appellate
jurisdiction is
limited to appeals
of death penalty
cases, validation
of public revenue
bonds, Florida
Public Service
Commission decisions, and district
court decisions declaring a statute
or constitutional provision invalid.
When these limited avenues of
review do not apply, a practitioner
may conclude the best opportunity
for Supreme Court review is to
[P]ractitioners believe
that if they can simply
discover a conflicting
opinion, they can
pursue an appeal.
proceed under
the “catch-all”
category of
“discretionary
review”
jurisdiction.
The Florida
Supreme Court
may review district
court opinions that
“expressly and
directly conflict
with a decision
of another district
court of appeal
or of the supreme
court on the same
question of law.”
See Fla. R. App. P.
9.030(2)(iv); see
also Fla. Const. art. V, § 3(b)(3). The
conflict between the opinions must
“appear within the four corners of
the majority decision.” See Reaves v.
State, 485 So. 2d 829 (Fla. 1986).
Continued on page 19
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18 DEC 2012 - JAN 2013 | HCBA LAWYER