Costarell v. Florida Unemp. Appeals Com'n

• Decision Date: 23 November 2005
• Docket Number: No. SC04-1429.,SC04-1429.
• Citation: 916 So.2d 778
• Parties: Daniel C. COSTARELL, Petitioner, v. FLORIDA UNEMPLOYMENT APPEALS COMMISSION, Respondent.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

916 So.2d 778

Daniel C. COSTARELL, Petitioner, v. FLORIDA UNEMPLOYMENT APPEALS COMMISSION, Respondent.

No. SC04-1429.

Supreme Court of Florida.

November 23, 2005.

Harvey J. Sepler, Hollywood, FL, for Petitioner.

John D. Maher, Deputy General Counsel, Unemployment Appeals Commission, Tallahassee, FL, for Respondent.

ANSTEAD, J.

We have for review the decision in Costarell v. Unemployment Appeals Commission, 874 So.2d 43 (Fla. 2d DCA 2004), based upon certified conflict with the decision in Dines v. Florida Unemployment Appeals Commission, 730 So.2d 378 (Fla. 3d DCA 1999). We have jurisdiction. Art. V, § 3(b)(4), Fla. Const. We quash the decision in Costarell and approve the decision in Dines.

Proceedings to Date

The legal issue to be resolved in this appeal can best be understood by first considering the decisions rendered by the Third District Court of Appeal in three cases: Savage v. Macy's East, Inc., 708 So.2d 689 (Fla. 3d DCA 1998) (Savage I); Savage v. Macy's East, Inc., 719 So.2d 1208 (Fla. 3d DCA 1998), review denied, 729 So.2d 391 (Fla.1999) (Savage II); and Dines v. Florida Unemployment Appeals Commission, 730 So.2d 378 (Fla. 3d DCA 1999).

In Savage I, the Third District ruled that the Florida Unemployment Appeals Commission had wrongfully determined that the claimant, Savage, was not qualified to receive compensation. 708 So.2d at 689. When the Commission failed to honor the court's mandate, the district court issued a subsequent opinion On Motion to Enforce Mandate in Savage II. 719 So.2d at 1208. In Savage II, Chief Judge Schwartz, in an opinion for a unanimous court, rejected the Commission's claim that the claimant could not receive benefits even though she won her appeal because she failed to continue to file weekly claims for benefits after she had been declared ineligible for such benefits and had filed an appeal. Id. at 1209. Chief Judge Schwartz explained that the Commission had no authority to deviate from the Third District's mandate directing that the claimant receive benefits now that she had been determined to be properly eligible. Id.

In addition, in Savage II, the Third District expressly rejected the Commission's claim that the claimant, having been ruled ineligible by the Commission, was required to continue to file weekly claims even in the face of the adverse Commission ruling on her eligibility:

(Virtually as an aside, moreover, we note the lack of substance in the [Commission's] present position both because ordering continuing claims to a tribunal which has already rejected the claimant's eligibility amounts to the prohibited requirement of performing a series of useless acts, C.U. Assocs. v. R.B. Grove, Inc., 472 So.2d 1177 (Fla.1985); Haimovitz v. Robb, 130 Fla. 844, 178 So. 827 (1937); Hoshaw v. State, 533 So.2d 886 (Fla. 3d DCA 1988), and because the failure formally to make the claims was an entirely harmless technicality in light of the indisputable evidence of Ms. Savage's eligibility for those benefits. See Griffin v. Workman, 73 So.2d 844 (Fla.1954); Lumbermens Mut. Cas. Co. v. Martin, 399 So.2d 536, 537 (Fla. 3d DCA 1981), review denied, 408 So.2d 1094 (Fla.1981).)

Id. at 1209-10 (footnote omitted). To be sure, the Third District expressed its concerns for the Commission's disregard of the district court's prior rulings and the rulings of other courts:

In several respects, the circumstances of this case raise serious concerns about the Commission's and the Department's conduct in the administration and adjudication of these claims. First, we are told that, in several of the many prior cases in which determinations of ineligibility have been reversed by the courts of appeal, the Department has improperly enforced its present contentions as to claimants who are typically unrepresented by counsel and are both unaware of and are not told of their rights under the law. Furthermore, and possibly even worse, the Commission, after being reversed on the misconduct issue in literally scores of cases by every district court of appeal, see Berry v. Scotty's, Inc., 711 So.2d 575 (Fla. 2d DCA 1998); Hall v. Florida Unemployment Appeals Comm'n, 700 So.2d 107 (Fla. 1st DCA 1997), and cases cited; Pion v. Miami Paper & Plastic, Inc., 698 So.2d 1379 (Fla. 3d DCA 1997); Betancourt v. Sun Bank Miami, N.A., 672 So.2d 37 (Fla. 3d DCA 1996), and cases cited; Phanco v. Unemployment Appeals Comm'n, 639 So.2d 695 (Fla. 5th DCA 1994); Cooks v. Unemployment Appeals Comm'n, 670 So.2d 178 (Fla. 4th DCA 1996); cases collected at 15 Fla. Stat. Ann. 443.101 nn. 33-55, at 139-155, and at 24 (Supp.1998), has virtually contemnatiously continued to ignore its duty to follow the established law, even if it disagrees, by repeatedly doing so to the prejudice not only of those who bring their cases before us but, very likely, of many unrepresented claimants who have failed to perfect their appellate rights. See also Wright v. Florida Unemployment Appeals Comm'n, 512 So.2d 333, 335 (Fla. 3d DCA 1987) (Pearson, J. concurring; condemning Commission's refusal even to recognize controlling law). In our view, these patterns of behavior may well justify further inquiry by the legislature, by the executive branch of our state government or by the Secretary of Labor under 42 U.S.C. § 503(b).

Id. at 1209 n. 2. Hence, the Third District left no doubt as to the meaning of its rulings in Savage I and Savage II and its emphatic rejection of the Commission's interpretation of the statutory scheme.

Dines

Subsequent to its decisions in Savage I and Savage II, the Third District again was presented with the issue of whether a claimant who had been determined by the Commission to be ineligible to receive benefits must nevertheless continue to file weekly claims during the pendency of any appeal of the adverse ineligibility decision. Dines, 730 So.2d at 379.

In Dines, Chief Judge Schwartz again authored the opinion of a unanimous court rejecting the Commission's position:

We now hold, as we said in dictum in Savage v. Macy's East, Inc., 719 So.2d 1208, 1209-10 (Fla. 3d DCA 1998), review denied, 729 So.2d 391, 1999 WL 89324 (Fla. Feb. 11, 1999), that the denial of benefits on this ground is entirely erroneous

[b]oth because ordering continuing claims to a tribunal which has already rejected the claimant's eligibility amounts to the prohibited requirement of performing a series of useless acts, C.U. Assocs. v. R.B. Grove, Inc., 472 So.2d 1177 (Fla.1985); Haimovitz v. Robb, 130 Fla. 844, 178 So. 827 (1937); Hoshaw v. State, 533 So.2d 886 (Fla. 3d DCA 1988), and because the failure formally to make the claims was an entirely harmless technicality in light of the indisputable evidence of Ms. Savage's eligibility for those benefits. See Griffin v. Workman, 73 So.2d 844 (Fla.1954); Lumbermens Mut. Cas. Co. v. Martin, 399 So.2d 536, 537 (Fla. 3d DCA 1981), review denied, 408 So.2d 1094 (Fla.1981).

Savage, 719 So.2d at 1209-10.

Because

no rights are at stake, Reid v. Southern Development Co., 52 Fla. 595, 42 So. 206 (1906), and only a non-essential mode of proceeding is prescribed, Fraser v. Willey, 2 Fla. 116 (1848),

Allied Fidelity Ins. Co. v. State, 415 So.2d 109, 111 (Fla. 3d DCA 1982), it is apparent that, in this context, the statutory requirement for the filing of weekly reports must be deemed to be advisory or directory only. Allied, 415 So.2d at 111. In the admitted absence of any prejudice to the Commission or the employer, therefore, the failure to make them cannot result in the forfeiture of benefits to which the unemployed applicant is otherwise entitled by law. See Department of Bus. Regulation, Div. of Pari-Mutuel Wagering v. Hyman, 417 So.2d 671 (Fla.1982) (applying principle of administrative harmless error); Ewing v. Kaplan, 474 So.2d 302 (Fla. 3d DCA 1985), and cases cited, review denied, 486 So.2d 595 (Fla.1986).

For those reasons, the order of the Unemployment Commission is reversed and the cause remanded with directions to afford Dines unemployment compensation benefits for August 12, 1996, through September 27, 1996.

Dines, 730 So.2d at 379. The net effect of the three decisions of the Third District was a clear and unambiguous legal mandate to the Florida Unemployment Compensation Commission and the Division of Unemployment Compensation rejecting the Commission's position as to any continuing requirement of claimants to file weekly claims after the claimants had been determined to be ineligible to receive benefits or while an appeal was pending.

Costarell

The decisions of the Third District in the Savage II case and in Dines remained the prevailing law on the issue at the time the claimant Daniel C. Costarell found himself in the same position as the claimants in those cases. Costarell, 874 So.2d at 44. That is, despite Costarell being successful in overturning on appeal a decision declaring him ineligible for benefits, as was the case with claimants Savage and Dines, the Commission ignored the Third District rulings and denied Costarell benefits because he failed to file weekly claims during the pendency of his appeal. Id. It is apparent that despite having been a direct party in the Savage and Dines appeals, and obviously aware of the holdings in those cases, the Commission ignored those legal rulings, and, as it had done in those cases, denied Mr. Costarell's claim because he did not continue to file weekly claims after being declared ineligible for benefits. Id.¹ Thereafter, in a pro se appeal filed by Mr. Costarell, the Second District Court of Appeal affirmed the Commission's action. Id. at 45. When Mr. Costarell sought review in this Court, he was appointed counsel to represent him.

Rule of Law and Statutory Scheme

Without any attempt to explain its actions in ignoring the rule of law established by the Third District in Savage and Dines, the Commission now repeats the same arguments considered and rejected by the Third District in those cases. Like the Third District, we...