Third District Court of Appeal

State of Florida 

Opinion filed July 5, 2023.

Not final until disposition of timely filed motion for rehearing.

________________

No. 3D23-710

Lower Tribunal No. 22-73 AP

________________

Jack Kessler,

Petitioner,

vs.

Miami-Dade County, et al.,

Respondents.

On Petition for Writ of Certiorari from the Circuit Court for Miami-Dade 

County, Appellate Division, Ramiro C. Areces, Daryl E. Trawick, and Maria 

de Jesus Santovenia, Judges.

Bercow Radell Fernandez Larkin & Tapanes, PLLC, and Thomas H. 

Robertson and Nicholas J. Rodriguez-Caballero and Gray J. Crow, for 

petitioner.

Geraldine Bonzon-Keenan, Miami-Dade County Attorney, and Cristina 

Rabionet and Christopher J. Wahl, Assistant County Attorneys, for 

respondent Miami-Dade County; Pathman Schermer Tandy, LLP, and David 

M. Hawthorne and Michele Formaggio, for respondents Alexander Ayzen 

and Alla Ayzen.
2

Before SCALES, MILLER and BOKOR, JJ. 

SCALES, J.

In this second-tier certiorari case, petitioner Jack Kessler challenges a 

March 22, 2023 circuit court order that denied petitioner’s first-tier certiorari 

challenge to an October 6, 2022 resolution of the Board of County 

Commissioners of Miami-Dade County. The County’s resolution approved 

an application for a boat dock permit submitted by petitioner’s neighbor, the 

County’s co-respondents, Alexander Ayzen and Alla Ayzen. 

Our second-tier certiorari review is limited to whether the circuit court 

afforded procedural due process and applied the correct law. Cocoplum

Civic Ass’n v. City of Coral Gables, 336 So. 3d 774, 774 (Fla. 3d DCA 2021).

We deny the petition because the record clearly shows the circuit court 

afforded due process. Seminole Ent. Inc. v. City of Casselberry, Fla., 813 

So. 2d 186, 188 (Fla. 5th DCA 2002) (“As to whether the circuit court afforded 

[petitioner] procedural due process, in its petition for certiorari [petitioner] 

does not even contend to the contrary. Rather, in asserting a due process 

argument, [petitioner] improperly argues that it was not afforded procedural 

due process in the hearing before the city commission. Arguments as to the 

alleged lack of due process before the city commission were properly 
3

presented to the circuit court but are beyond the scope of due process review 

available here.”) (footnote omitted).

Also, there is no indication that the circuit court applied the incorrect 

law in its review of the County’s approval of the dock permit application. See

Miami-Dade Cnty. v. Omnipoint Holdings, Inc., 863 So. 2d 195, 199 (Fla. 

2003) (“The district court may not review the record to determine whether 

the underlying agency decision is supported by competent, substantial 

evidence. Therefore, as a practical matter the circuit court’s final ruling in 

most first-tier cases is conclusive because second-tier review is so 

extraordinarily limited.”) (citation omitted); Somerset Acad., Inc. v. MiamiDade Cnty. Bd. of Cnty. Comm’rs., 314 So. 3d 597, 599 (Fla. 3d DCA 2020) 

(recognizing that an unelaborated circuit court order on first-tier certiorari will 

generally not merit second-tier certiorari review).

Petition denied.