Daniels v. Florida Parole and Probation Commission

• Decision Date: 12 May 1981
• Docket Number: No. PP-160,PP-160
• Citation: 401 So.2d 1351
• Parties: Helen DANIELS, Appellant, v. FLORIDA PAROLE AND PROBATION COMMISSION, Appellee.
• Court: Florida District Court of Appeals

Page 1351

401 So.2d 1351

Helen DANIELS, Appellant, v. FLORIDA PAROLE AND PROBATION COMMISSION, Appellee.

No. PP-160.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, First District.

May 12, 1981.

As Corrected on Denial of Rehearing Aug. 19, 1981.

Ronald D. Combs, Gainesville, Florida Institutional Legal Services, Inc., for appellant.

Michael H. Davidson, former general counsel for Florida Parole and Probation Commission, Tallahassee, and Malcolm S. Greenfield, General Counsel, Florida Parole and Probation Commission, Tallahassee.

ERVIN, Judge.

Daniels filed an administrative appeal from an order of the Parole and Probation Commission which established a presumptive parole release date she claims is contrary to objective parole guidelines. ¹ The Commission moved to dismiss the appeal arguing this court lacked jurisdiction.

We ordered the parties to brief and argue the means by which an inmate invokes an appellate court's jurisdiction when seeking review of a presumptive parole release date. In responding, the Commission asserted that we lack jurisdiction to review such action, but if jurisdiction does exist, our review powers may be exercised only by mandamus. We now determine that our jurisdiction is not so limited, and that the Commission's discretionary action in establishing a presumptive parole release date is subject to review by administrative appeal.

I. Judicial Review Power

We first wish to put to rest the Commission's contention that the Commission is an executive creature whose actions are entirely immune from judicial review. It is now well established that the Commission is subject to the dictates of the legislature, Owens v. State, 316 So.2d 537 (Fla.1975), and to review by extraordinary remedy, Turner v. Wainwright, 379 So.2d 148 (Fla. 1st DCA 1980), affd., sub nom. Wainwright v. Turner, 389 So.2d 1181 (Fla.1980); Moore v. Florida Parole and Probation Commission, 289 So.2d 719 (Fla.1974); James v. Florida Parole and Probation Commission, 395 So.2d 197 (Fla. 1st DCA 1981); Battis v. Florida Parole and Probation Commission, 386 So.2d 295 (Fla. 1st DCA 1980); Smith v. Crockett, 383 So.2d 1166 (Fla. 3d DCA 1980); Baker v. Florida Parole and Probation Commission, 384 So.2d 746 (Fla. 1st DCA 1980).

II. Mandamus

Prior to the decision of the Florida Supreme Court in Moore v. Florida Parole and Probation Comn., supra, the extraordinary writ of mandamus was considered appropriate only to review ministerial acts. Review of discretion was improper. Solomon v. Sanitarians' Registration Board, 155 So.2d 353 (Fla.1963); Anoll v. Pomerance, 363 So.2d 329 (Fla.1978). The traditional underpinnings of mandamus jurisdiction were significantly eroded by Moore, which held that mandamus was a suitable means for examining the Commission's discretionary order denying a petition for parole that had allegedly been influenced by taking into account certain illegal considerations. In so applying mandamus, the Moore court in effect apparently disregarded precedent which had limited mandamus review over only ministerial acts. We are not similarly restrained as was the court when it decided Moore by want of an appellate foundation from directly reviewing the discretionary acts of the Commission. Moore was written before the enactment of the Objective Parole Guidelines Act of 1978, requiring that presumptive parole release dates be objectively determined, and before the implementation of the Administrative Procedure Act, vesting appellate courts with broad powers of review over agencies. Its decision reflects an accommodation between the perceived necessity of reviewing Commission action where appellant review was not provided by law, and the-then traditional view that the Commission, being a creature of the executive, was immune from judicial scrutiny. See Marsh v. Garwood, 65 So.2d 15, 21 (Fla.1953). In our judgment, a jurisdictional base has been provided, subsequent to Moore, by Section 120.68 of the Florida Statutes (1975).

III. Section 120.68 Judicial Review

Section 120.60(1), defining the scope of judicial review permissible, broadly states: "A party who is adversely affected by final agency action is entitled to judicial review." It follows then that in order to have standing to seek such review, a person must show: (1) the action is final; (2) the agency is subject to the provisions of the Act; (3) he was a party to the action which he seeks to appeal, and (4) he was adversely affected by the action.

It can hardly be doubted that the Commission's establishment of a presumptive parole release date is final agency action. It is immaterial that the action appealed may not have the characteristics of a Section 120.59 order. Our "ultimate task under Section 120.68 is to review 'action', not agency judgments, ...." Rice v. Dept. of Health and Rehabilitative Services, 386 So.2d 844, 850 (Fla. 1st DCA 1980). Such action may include "a rule or order, or the equivalent, ...." Section 120.52(2)(e.s.). The action involved here is a final agency decision reduced to writing, styled "Commission action", which is binding upon the Commission except where exceptional circumstances arise. See Sections 947.172(3) and .173(3).

It is now beyond question that the Commission is an agency subject to the provisions of the APA. We have repeatedly held that the 1974 Administrative Procedure Act enforces its discipline on all agencies, unless they are specifically exempted, whose actions affect the substantial interests of a party. E. g., State ex rel. Dept. of General Services v. Willis, 344 So.2d 580 (Fla. 1st DCA 1977); School Board of Leon County v. Mitchell, 346 So.2d 562 (Fla. 1st DCA 1977); McDonald v. Dept. of Banking & Finance, 346 So.2d 569 (Fla. 1st DCA 1977). Moreover, the Commission is not excluded from the Act's scope under Section 120.50 ² or otherwise. ³ Compare Comer v. Florida Parole & Probation Commission, 388 So.2d 1341 (Fla. 1st DCA 1980).

The most significant question before us is whether an inmate may be considered a party to the action which he seeks to have reviewed when the APA denies him the right to obtain certain privileges that would be otherwise available to all substantially affected parties at the proceeding where the final action occurred. The Commission argues that an inmate does not have party status to seek an appeal, relying upon Section 120.52(10)(d), which provides: "Prisoners as defined in s. 944.02(5) shall not be considered parties for the purposes of obtaining proceedings under s. 120.54(16) or s. 120.57 ...." The Commission continues that because prisoners are precluded as parties entitled to seek such proceedings, they are not entitled to Section 120.68 appeals from Commission action entered following a non-section 120.57 proceeding. It then concludes that we are without jurisdiction to entertain such appeals since there is no provision of general law conferring jurisdiction upon the district courts as required by Article V, Section 4(b)(2), Florida Constitution (1968).

The Commission fails to understand the broad scope of Chapter 120. An inmate is not denied party status simply because he appears before an agency at a proceeding which is not specifically recognized under Chapter 120 (proceedings established, for examples, by Sections 120.54, .56, .565 or .57). This conclusion is made evident by reference to the APA's definition of party. Section 120.52(10)(a), (b) and (c) recognizes three classes of parties: (1) persons whose substantial interests are determined in a proceeding; (2) other persons who are authorized as a matter of constitutional right, provision of statute, or rule to participate in a proceeding as parties, and, finally, (3) still other persons who are permitted by the agency to intervene or participate in a proceeding as parties. Section 120.52(10)'s reference to "proceeding" does not limit or restrict the word to proceedings that are cognizable only under the APA. ⁴ Although not defined by Chapter 120, proceeding is generally defined as a legal action, a particular action at law, or case in litigation. Webster's Third New International Dictionary (1976). Therefore, by reason of the general, unrestricted usage of the word proceeding in Section 120.52(10), we conclude that the legislature intended that a person may be a party to any proceeding or legal action which is recognized by law, including one at which a presumptive parole release date is determined.

Having established that an inmate may be considered a party to a proceeding which does not comport with the procedural requirements of the APA, it is next necessary to decide whether the inmate's interests were "adversely affected" by the action taken, as required by Section 120.68(1). The fact that a person may have the requisite standing to appear as a party before an agency at a de novo proceeding does not mean that the party automatically has standing to appeal. The APA's definition of a party recognizes the need for a much broader zone of party representation at the administrative level than at the appellate level. For example, in rulemaking, a large number of persons may be invited or permitted by the agency to participate as parties in the proceeding, so as to provide information to the agency concerning a broad spectrum of policy considerations affecting proposed rules. See Balino v. Dept. of Health and Rehab., etc., 362 So.2d 21 (Fla. 1st DCA 1978). Yet, a person who participates in such a proceeding by a statute, rule, or by an agency's permission, may not necessarily possess any interests which are adversely, or even substantially, affected by the proposed action.

In the case at bar, we are not confronted with any problem of standing existing at the administrative level which does not exist also at the appellate level. An inmate who contends that his presumptive parole release date was established by the Parole Commission contrary to the objective criteria required by Chapter 947 has adequately represented both...