Waters v. Inch, 1D18-639

• Decision Date: 25 January 2019
• Docket Number: No. 1D18-639,1D18-639
• Citation: 266 So.3d 1216
• Parties: James Levoy WATERS, Appellant, v. Mark INCH, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections, Tallahassee, Florida ; and GEO Group, Inc., Boca Raton, Florida, Appellees.
• Court: Florida District Court of Appeals

266 So.3d 1216

James Levoy WATERS, Appellant,
v.
Mark INCH, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections, Tallahassee, Florida ; and GEO Group, Inc., Boca Raton, Florida, Appellees.

No. 1D18-639

District Court of Appeal of Florida, First District.

January 25, 2019
Rehearing Denied March 29, 2019

James Levoy Waters, pro se, Appellant.

Ashley B. Moody, Attorney General, and Kristen J. Lonergan, Assistant Attorney General, Tallahassee, for Appellee Mark Inch, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections; Scott J. Seagle of Coppins Monroe, P.A., Tallahassee, for Appellee GEO Group, Inc.

Per Curiam.

James Levoy Waters (Appellant) appeals the dismissal of his petition for writ of mandamus. For the reasons that follow, we reverse.

In his mandamus petition, Appellant asserted that GEO Group, Inc., the private

266 So.3d 1217

company that manages the correctional facility where he is housed, and the Secretary of the Florida Department of Corrections ("DOC") (collectively, Appellees) had an indisputable legal duty to follow the rules of chapter 33 of the Florida Administrative Code that govern the impounding, safekeeping, and return of inmates' personal property and the investigation of claims of missing inmate property and that they failed to follow those rules. Specifically, he alleged in part that Appellees failed to list his folder containing eight depositions on the Inmate Impounded Personal Property List when his property was impounded upon his placement in administrative confinement, Appellees failed to return the folder to him upon his release from confinement, and Appellees failed to adequately investigate his claim during the grievance proceedings. Appellant showed he had exhausted his administrative remedies. Following the trial court's issuance of an order to show cause, each Appellee filed a response to the petition, denying that they ever received or had control over the alleged legal documents, and GEO further asserting that a diligent search confirmed that it does not possess the documents.

The trial court entered an Order Dismissing Petition for Writ of Mandamus, reasoning that (1) to the extent Appellant seeks to compel the return of allegedly lost legal documents, mandamus relief is unavailable because he has other adequate remedies available; (2) mandamus is not a proper remedy because a factual dispute exists concerning the inventorying, storing, and returning of Appellant's legal documents; and (3) to the extent Appellant requests monetary reimbursement for his legal documents, he is not entitled to relief because mandamus is not an appropriate vehicle for seeking monetary damages. This appeal followed.

We review the dismissal of a mandamus petition de novo . Waters v. Dep't of Corr. , 144 So.3d 613, 615 (Fla. 1st DCA 2014). "In order to be entitled to a writ of mandamus, the petitioner must have a clear legal right to the requested relief, the respondent must have an indisputable legal duty to perform the requested action, and the petitioner must have no other adequate remedy available." Fla. Agency for Health Care Admin. v. Zuckerman Spaeder, LLP , 221 So.3d 1260, 1263 (Fla. 1st DCA 2017).

Appellant challenges in part the...