THESE ARE NOT ALL OF THE CASES RELEASED BY THE COURTS FOR THE WEEK.
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Administrative law -- Pari-Mutuel Wagering -- Licensing fees and taxes -- Rules -- Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering's denial of thoroughbred permitholder's request for a tax refund that would have shifted an applied tax rate on handle for intertrack wagering from 5.5 percent to 0.5 percent per subsection 550.0951(3)(c)1. amounted to an unpromulgated rule -- Permitholder met the subsection's requirements to be accorded the 0.5 percent rate as a thoroughbred permitholder operating a pari-mutuel facility that conducts intertrack wagering on simulcast events and thus qualifies as a guest track -- Florida Gaming Control Commission's interpretation of the subsection was not readily apparent from plain language of its text and constituted an unpromulgated rule subject to challenge under section 120.56(4)(a) -- Commission's interpretation of statutory language “within the market area of a thoroughbred permitholder currently conducting a live race meet” goes beyond statute's plain language by adding or implying additional terms that change statute's meaning where Commission's interpretation is plainly understood to mean a separate or other thoroughbred permitholder hosting a live meet within 25 miles of a guest track, regardless of possibility that a thoroughbred permitholder may qualify as a guest -- Statutory language does not preclude a permitholder operating a host track and meeting criteria for a guest track from qualifying for 0.5 percent tax rate on handle
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Arbitration -- Waiver -- Conditions precedent -- Determination by court/arbitrator -- Trial court erred in determining that defendants had not waived their right to arbitration by failing to engage in mediation based on finding that mediation was not a condition precedent to arbitration -- Authority to determine whether a condition precedent has been fulfilled is explicitly assigned by statute to the arbitrator, and whether a certain obligation is or is not a condition precedent is necessarily subsumed within that question -- Trial court erred in treating issue of condition precedent fulfillment as one of waiver in instant case because defendants' conduct in insisting that they have the right to arbitrate without first attending mediation, even if their repudiation of the obligation to mediate circumvents a condition precedent, was consistent with the right to arbitrate rather than a relinquishment of that right -- Furthermore, when a failure to perform a condition precedent can simply be cured by fulfilling the condition, such a failure cannot be conflated with waiver because waiver effects a relinquishment of the right to arbitrate that is irrevocable -- Even presuming the possibility that a party's inaction could under some circumstance be both a failure to fulfill a condition precedent to arbitration and a consequent waiver of the right to arbitration, it remains a matter for an arbitrator to decide
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Civil procedure -- Discovery -- Depositions -- Experts -- Non-testifying expert -- Appeals -- Certiorari -- Order denying defendant's motion for protective order seeking to prevent plaintiff from deposing defendant's non-testifying expert witness is quashed -- Trial court departed from essential requirements of the law when it determined that non-testifying expert's compulsory medical examination of plaintiff constituted “exceptional circumstances” under rule 1.280 -- Nothing in rule 1.360(b) authorizes deposition of a non-testifying defense expert who conducted a compulsory medical examination of a plaintiff
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Real property -- Motor vehicles -- Towing -- Parking on private property -- Homeowners associations -- Notice -- Small claims -- Action alleging that homeowners' association had improperly towed plaintiff resident's vehicle for parking on the grass in violation of section 715.07 -- No error in entering summary disposition against plaintiff where record shows that the association posted a sign stating that unauthorized vehicles would be towed at the owner's expense -- Under statute, general notice by the posting of signs indicating “unauthorized vehicles will be towed” is all the notice required to entitle property owners to have any vehicle parked without permission removed from the property -- Property owner is only required to personally give notice if property owner has not generally provided notice through signage -- Court rejects argument that posted notice only concerns “unauthorized vehicles” and plaintiff, as a resident of the community with a parking permit, was authorized to be at the property -- Because plaintiff knew her vehicle was not authorized to park on the grass under association's rule, the signs were sufficient notice entitling the association to remove her vehicle for parking without permission -- Even assuming personal notice was required under statute, argument would properly have been rejected as an unpled claim where it was raised for the first time in response to association's motion for summary disposition -- Plaintiff is not entitled to relief based on association's apparent failure to follow its own notice requirements prior to towing vehicle where claim that association violated its own parking rules was not pled below -- Court rejects argument that claim was pled because plaintiff had pled claim that she had permission to park where she did, and plaintiff had permission to park on grass until association notified her of the violation and she failed to correct it -- Association notice theory was a separate claim from the permission theory plaintiff pled because the failure to provide notice does not constitute “permission” under section 715.07(2)
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Rules for Certified and Court-Appointed Mediators -- Amendment -- Certification requirements -- Point system categories -- Moral character -- Self-determination -- Impartiality -- Conflicts of interest -- Confidentiality -- Fees and expenses -- Conduct of mediation -- Relationships of other mediators
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Rules of Juvenile Procedure -- Amendment
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Torts -- Automobile accident -- Venue -- Forum non conveniens -- Accident occurring in South Carolina -- No abuse of discretion in denying joint motion to dismiss action against defendant driver, defendant driver's employer, and owner of defendant driver's vehicle for forum non conveniens -- Trial court's failure to articulate its findings on each Kinney factor in its written order does not warrant reversal -- Adequate analysis of Kinney factors in hearing itself, as occurred in instant case, can support affirmance of an otherwise insufficient order -- No error in finding that Kinney factors weighed in favor of Florida as a forum where, although inspection of the crash site and review of police crash reports located in South Carolina appear highly relevant, defendants submitted no affidavits identifying what witnesses or experts they intended to call who still reside in South Carolina, allegations suggested that a substantial amount of business-related discovery will take place in Florida, all defendants are located in the county where the action was filed, and Florida has an interest in addressing the purported negligent conduct attributed to the corporate defendants which occurred in state
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Torts -- Hospitals -- Disclosure of communications -- Sovereign immunity -- Trial court erred by denying hospital district's motion to dismiss action alleging that it knowingly disclosed individual's private and protected information on social media -- Amendment of section 934.10 to include claims against entities was not a clear and unequivocal waiver of sovereign immunity
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Criminal Law Headnotes (Jump to Civil Law Headnotes)

THESE ARE NOT ALL OF THE CASES RELEASED BY THE COURTS FOR THE WEEK.
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Criminal law -- New trial -- Order -- Vacation -- Intervening change in law -- Non-final orders -- Trial court did not err in vacating its prior new trial order and reinstating defendant's convictions based on change in governing law -- Trial court had inherent authority to reconsider order granting motion for new trial prior to the occurrence of the new trial -- An order granting a new trial is not considered a final order -- Fact that state could have appealed the order did not make it a final order -- Judicial labor remained to be done where new trial mandated by the order had not yet occurred
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Criminal law -- Plea -- Withdrawal -- Counsel -- Error to deny defendant's pro se motion to withdraw plea without appointing conflict-free counsel to represent defendant -- Trial court must appoint conflict-free counsel to represent the defendant after a motion to withdraw plea is filed if court determines that an adversarial relationship exists between defendant and defense counsel, unless record conclusively refutes defendant's allegations -- Facts sufficiently demonstrated an adversarial relationship between defendant and his trial counsel where trial counsel informed the court that he did not agree that defendant's pro se motion to withdraw plea had any merit and that if defendant proceeded with the motion, counsel would seek to withdraw from representation -- Record does not conclusively refute defendant's allegations that convictions for both solicitation and traveling to meet a minor violated prohibition against double jeopardy by being based upon same conduct, even if it is possible that these charges were based on different conduct by defendant over course of three-day period -- Because record does not conclusively refute this double jeopardy argument, trial court should have appointed conflict-free counsel pursuant to Sheppard v. State
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Criminal law -- Search and seizure -- Vehicle -- Traffic stop -- Officers had probable cause to believe that defendant committed traffic offense after observing him stop or park his vehicle in specially designated and marked handicapped parking space although vehicle did not display either a disabled parking permit or license plate issued pursuant to any statutes specified in section 316.1955(1) -- Trial court erred in granting motion to suppress on ground that it was not clear that a traffic violation had occurred because defendant was not in parking space for sufficient time to allow defendant to display a disability parking permit and because a person could temporarily stop in parking space without the need for permit or special license plate if he was chauffeuring or unloading or loading a person with a disability -- Trial court's application of law to facts was erroneous, and court's factual findings were unsupported by competent substantial evidence -- Defendant was properly directed to exit his vehicle, and officers had reasonable suspicion of criminal activity when concealed firearm became visible after defendant's exit -- Post-arrest inventory search of vehicle permissibly uncovered drugs located in satchel in front of driver's seat
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Criminal law -- Second degree murder with weapon -- Justifiable use of deadly force -- Evidence -- Expert -- Post-traumatic stress disorder -- Circuit court did not err in granting state's motion in limine to exclude expert opinion evidence that defendant suffered from PTSD where evidence related to defendant's defense of justifiable use of deadly force -- Jury is required to apply an objective-person standard when determining whether “a reasonably cautious and prudent person under the same circumstances would have believed that the danger could be avoided only through the use of” deadly force, and peculiarity of defendant's mental state is not germane to that issue
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