Strong v. Ochs

• Decision Date: 29 May 2009
• Docket Number: No. 2D09-1020.,2D09-1020.
• Citation: 14 So.3d 1060
• Parties: Jill STRONG, Petitioner, v. Matthew OCHS, Respondent.
• Court: Florida District Court of Appeals

14 So.3d 1060

Jill STRONG, Petitioner, v. Matthew OCHS, Respondent.

No. 2D09-1020.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Second District.

May 29, 2009.

Susan Hartmann Swartz, Law Office of Stanley R. Swartz, Bradenton, for Petitioner.

Joseph R. DeCiantis, Joseph R. DeCiantis, P.A., Venice, for Respondent.

WHATLEY, Judge.

Jill Strong seeks a writ of prohibition to prevent a county judge from presiding over her family law case and a writ of mandamus to compel someone other than the chief judge or the presiding circuit court judge to reassign her case to a different division in the circuit court. We dismiss the petition for writ of prohibition for lack of jurisdiction. We dismiss the petition for writ of mandamus as there is no authority for mandamus relief in the manner sought by Strong.

Both petitions arise from the reassignment of a family law case filed in Division H of the Circuit Court for Sarasota County. Division H is within the South County Judicial District of Sarasota County, a special judicial district of the Twelfth Judicial Circuit as described in various administrative orders. Pursuant to Twelfth Judicial Circuit Local Rule 8.1 and 8.7, the case was originally assigned to Judge Robert H. Bennett as the "Family H" judge assigned to the South County courthouse.¹ On motion from Strong, Judge Bennett was disqualified and the case was reassigned to a county judge serving temporarily as an acting circuit judge.

After the acting circuit judge later disqualified herself on her own motion pursuant to Florida Rule of Judicial Administration 2.160(i), Chief Judge Lee E. Haworth, acting within the scope of his authority when he made the assignment, reassigned the case to another county court judge serving temporarily as an acting circuit judge. See Fla. R. Jud. Admin. 2.215(b)(4); State ex rel. Treadwell v. Hall, 274 So.2d 537, 539 (Fla.1973) (holding that a chief judge may assign qualified county judges "as temporary circuit judges for the performance of any judicial service a circuit judge can perform").

Strong contends that this last assignment was improper. Apparently unaware of the order appointing the second judge as acting circuit judge, Strong asserted that assignment to a county judge would deprive the circuit court of jurisdiction of the case and that Twelfth Judicial Circuit Administrative Order 2008-13.2 (AO 2008-13.2) required that the case be transferred or reassigned to another division of the circuit court rather than to a county judge. Twelfth Circuit Local Rule 8.7, approved in June 2007, states that "family law matters filed in Division H of the Circuit Court for Sarasota County ... will be heard by the judges assigned to the South County courthouse in Venice, Florida." AO 2008-13.2, entered in September 2008 in response to "dramatic increases in case filings in the South County Judicial District," restricted new filings in that area to family cases and reassigned other pending cases to other divisions of the court. Paragraph 9 of AO 2008-13.2 provides that "[u]pon good cause shown, the Chief Judge or the presiding Circuit Judge in Division H may order that Family Division matters ... be transferred or reassigned to another division of the Circuit Court."

Strong argues that Jimenez v. Rateni, 967 So.2d 1075 (Fla. 2d DCA 2007), and Del Valle v. Tolson, 969 So.2d 1121 (Fla. 2d DCA 2007), in which this court granted certiorari review and quashed interlocutory orders entered by the circuit court regarding judicial assignment in civil appellate proceedings, require this court to grant the petitions for a writ of prohibition and mandamus to reassign her case to another division of the court rather than the county judge. Jimenez and Del Valle, however, considered orders that violated the unambiguous provisions of a local rule regarding assignment of civil appeals from the county court. This court found "common law certiorari jurisdiction to review the circuit court's order ... because the utilization of an improper process for the assignment of a judicial case causes `material injury ... that cannot be corrected on postjudgment appeal.'" Jimenez, 967 So.2d at 1077 (internal citation omitted). This court also found jurisdiction based on cases recognizing certiorari as an appropriate vehicle for challenging certain administrative orders, noting that although Jimenez had made no reference to an administrative order, she was in effect challenging an administrative practice based on an administrative order. That jurisdiction, however, properly includes "challenges to administrative orders, other than challenges to judicial assignments." See ...