State v. Huggins, KK-487
| Decision Date | 09 March 1979 |
| Docket Number | No. KK-487,KK-487 |
| Citation | 368 So.2d 119 |
| Parties | STATE of Florida, Appellant, v. Jonathan Chester HUGGINS, Appellee. |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
Robert L. Shevin, Atty. Gen., Wallace E. Allbritton, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellant.
Robert Staats, Panama City, for appellee.
The State appeals from an order granting Huggins' motion to dismiss its information on the ground that the State did not respond with sufficient specificity. The State contends the trial court erred. We agree and reverse.
Although the State's traverse is not a model pleading; although there is no authority for the allegation, "has no knowledge"; nevertheless, the State did specifically deny under oath the material facts alleged in the unsworn motion to dismiss. Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.190(d) provides that a motion to dismiss shall be denied if the State's traverse with specificity denies under oath the material facts alleged in the motion.
However, the Court's order dismissing the information is based on the State's failure to respond with sufficient specificity. Apparently the court was of the opinion that the State was required to disclose in its traverse the ultimate facts upon which it would rely at trial in order to withstand the motion to dismiss filed pursuant to Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.190(c) (4). This is contrary to our holding in Ellis v. State, 346 So.2d 1044 (Fla. 1st DCA 1977). We stated in Ellis that a proceeding pursuant to Rule 3.190 "is designed to create neither a trial by affidavit nor a dry run of a trial on the merits, nor is it supposed to serve as a 'fishing expedition.' " As the Court stated in State v. Wood, 299 So.2d 111 (Fla. 4th DCA 1974), if a material fact in the motion is traversed by the State the information should not be dismissed.
The trial court could have and should have denied Huggins' motion to dismiss for its failure to comply with Rule 3.190(c)(4). The motion was not sworn to by Huggins, did not allege that the material facts of the case were undisputed and did not demonstrate that undisputed facts failed to establish a prima facie case. We stated in Ellis v. State, supra:
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...in the motion to dismiss that the state was denying. See State v. Wall, 445 So.2d 646, 649 (Fla. 2nd DCA 1984); State v. Huggins, 368 So.2d 119 (Fla. 1st DCA 1979). Appellee's belief, being a state of mind, is usually a question of fact to be determined by the trier of fact, not by the tria......
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...supplied). See State v. Love, 143 Fla. 883, 197 So. 534 (1940); State v. Shull, 390 So.2d 1233 (Fla. 5th DCA 1980); State v. Huggins, 368 So.2d 119 (Fla. 1st DCA 1979); Ellis v. State, 346 So.2d 1044 (Fla. 1st DCA), cert. denied, 352 So.2d 175 (Fla.1977); State v. Kling, 335 So.2d 614 (Fla.......
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...4th DCA 1980); State v. Fort, 380 So.2d 534 (Fla. 5th DCA 1980); State v. Power, 369 So.2d 96 (Fla. 2d DCA 1979); State v. Huggins, 368 So.2d 119 (Fla. 1st DCA 1979); State v. Cook, 354 So.2d 909 (Fla. 2d DCA), cert. dismissed, 359 So.2d 1212 (Fla.1978); Ellis v. State, supra; State v. Haml......
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