Case Name: WAL-MART STORES, INC., Petitioner, v. Marlana CUMMING, Respondent
Court: Florida District Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Florida
Decision Date: 1999-06-30
Citations: 736 So. 2d 1248
Docket Number: No. 99-1126
Parties: WAL-MART STORES, INC., Petitioner, v. Marlana CUMMING, Respondent.
Judges: FAJRMER and TAYLOR, JJ., concur.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 736
Pages: 1248–1249

Head Matter:
WAL-MART STORES, INC., Petitioner, v. Marlana CUMMING, Respondent.
No. 99-1126.
District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fourth District.
June 30, 1999.
Rachel P. Ray of Bridgers & Gill, Pensacola, for petitioner.
Leslie Hecker, Coral Gables, for respondent.

Opinion:
PER CURIAM.
Wal-Mart seeks to invoke this court's discretionary certiorari jurisdiction to review a discovery order that requires it to produce what is described as irrelevant information. Because Wal-Mart's has not demonstrated that the order will cause irreparable harm, we dismiss its petition for writ of certiorari. We write to resolve what has been viewed as a conflict in our recent decisions on the scope of our certio-rari jurisdiction.
This court has explained that certiorari does not lie to review the relevance of discovery, since the disclosure of information that is merely irrelevant is not likely to cause irreparable harm within the meaning of Martin-Johnson, Inc. v. Savage, 509 So.2d 1097 (Fla.1987). See, Coyne v. Schwartz, Gold, Cohen, Zakarin & Kotler, P.A., 715 So.2d 1021 (Fla. 4th DCA 1998); Eberhardt v. Eberhardt, 666 So.2d 1024 (Fla. 4th DCA 1996). The Florida Supreme Court recently approved that view of the limitation on our certiorari jurisdiction. See Allstate Insurance Co. v. Boecher, 24 Fla. L. Weekly S187, 733 So.2d 993, 1999 WL 231102 (Fla.1999).
However, Wal-Mart relies on our decision in Nissan Motors Corp. v. Espinosa, 716 So.2d 279 (Fla. 4th DCA 1998) to establish its jurisdictional claim. In Nissan, this court reversed an order requiring disclosure of irrelevant discovery information, without discussing in our published opinion whether the order posed a threat of irreparable harm. To the extent that our Nissan opinion could be read as dispensing with the irreparable harm factor of the test for certiorari jurisdiction, it conflicts with the Supreme Court's opinion in Boecher and cannot be relied upon as an expansion of our certiorari jurisdiction.
PETITION FOR WRIT OF CERTIORA-RI DISMISSED.
FAJRMER and TAYLOR, JJ., concur.
STONE, C. J., concurs specially with opinion.