Opinion ID: 1831462
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: scope of second-tier certiorari review

Text: Miami-Dade alleges that the Third District exceeded the scope of second-tier certiorari review when it declared the ordinances unconstitutional.
After a zoning board rules on an application for a special zoning exception, the parties may twice seek review in the court system. First, a party may seek certiorari review at the circuit court level. This review is a matter of right. See Florida Power & Light Co. v. City of Dania, 761 So.2d 1089, 1092 (Fla.2000). As we delineated in City of Deerfield Beach v. Vaillant, 419 So.2d 624 (Fla. 1982), and reiterated in G.B.V., the circuit court's first-tier review is three-pronged. The circuit court must determine (1) whether procedural due process is accorded, (2) whether the essential requirements of the law have been observed, and (3) whether the administrative findings and judgment are supported by competent substantial evidence. G.B.V., 787 So.2d at 843 (quoting Vaillant, 419 So.2d at 626). The parties may then seek second-tier certiorari review of the circuit court decision by petitioning for review in the district court. Second-tier certiorari review is not a matter of right and is similar in scope to common law certiorari review. See Florida Power, 761 So.2d at 1092-93. The scope of the district court's review on second-tier certiorari is limited to whether the circuit court (1) afforded procedural due process, and (2) applied the correct law. G.B.V., 787 So.2d at 843 (quoting Vaillant, 419 So.2d at 626). In other words, this two-pronged, second-tier review is simply another way of deciding whether the lower court departed from the essential requirements of law. Heggs, 658 So.2d at 530. A ruling constitutes a departure from the essential requirements of law when it amounts to a violation of a clearly established principle of law resulting in a miscarriage of justice. Tedder v. Florida Parole Comm'n, 842 So.2d 1022, 1024 (Fla. 1st DCA 2003) (quoting Combs v. State, 436 So.2d 93, 96 (Fla.1983)). The district court may not review the record to determine whether the underlying agency decision is supported by competent, substantial evidence. Florida Power, 761 So.2d at 1093. 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. Id. at 1092. Additionally, a petition seeking certiorari review is not the proper procedural vehicle to challenge the constitutionality of a statute or ordinance. Vaillant, 419 So.2d at 626. For example, in First Baptist Church of Perrine v. Miami-Dade County, 768 So.2d 1114, 1115 (Fla. 3d DCA 2000), the petitioner, on second-tier certiorari review, attempted to challenge the constitutionality of the same county ordinance at issue here. The Third District properly declined to exceed the proper scope of second-tier certiorari review and stated: The Church attempts to challenge the constitutionality of section 33-311 of the Miami-Dade County Code, which section establishes the Zoning Board and creates the criteria to be used by the Zoning Board in its consideration of zoning application [sic]. We decline to address the merits of this issue because a petition for certiorari is not the proper procedural vehicle to challenge the constitutionality of this ordinance. See City of Deerfield Beach v. Vaillant, 419 So.2d 624, 626 (Fla.1982) (The district court, in reviewing the circuit court's judgment determines whether the circuit court afforded procedural due process and applied the correct law.). The constitutionality of the ordinance must be determined in original proceedings before the circuit court, not by way of a petition for writ of certiorari. See Nostimo, Inc. v. City of Clearwater, 594 So.2d 779 (Fla. 2d DCA 1992). Furthermore, this issue was never brought before the circuit court in the proceedings below and should not be considered initially by this Court. Id. at 1115 n. 1 (emphasis added).
On first-tier certiorari review, the circuit court in this case applied the Vaillant test and quashed the zoning board's decision because it violated the second and third prongs. Specifically, the circuit court found: (1) the board's decision did not comport with the requirements of the Federal Telecommunications Act; and (2) there was no competent, substantial evidence in the record to support the denial of the application. The first prong was not addressed because the question of procedural due process was not raised by either party. On its review, the district court did not address either prong of a proper second-tier certiorari review. The first prong, whether procedural due process was afforded to the parties, was not an issue raised by the parties. There was no need to consider the issue. However, the district court also did not address the second and final element of second-tier certiorari review, whether the circuit court applied the correct law. This issue was raised by Miami-Dade and should have been adequately addressed. Instead of limiting itself to addressing the two prongs of second-tier certiorari review, the district court reached an issue neither party raised in any phase of the proceedings. Sua sponte, the Third District considered the facial constitutionality of the Miami-Dade County ordinances. The district court stated that although [a]rguably Omnipoint did not preserve the constitutional question, portions of the county code are fundamentally unfair and unjust and proceeded to hold them invalid. Omnipoint, 811 So.2d at 769 n. 6. The district court justified reaching the question of constitutionality solely on the authority of In re R.W., 481 So.2d 548, 549 (Fla. 5th DCA 1986) (holding patently unconstitutional a termination of parental rights statute that set forth no standards or guidelines for performance agreements, thus leaving the substance of such agreements entirely to the whims and caprices of the individual social worker who drafts them), aff'd, 495 So.2d 133 (Fla.1986). In R.W., the appellant specifically raised the issue of the constitutionality of the statute. By contrast, neither party in this case raised the constitutionality of the ordinances as an issue for the Third District to address. Further, unlike R.W., the county's ordinances in this case, even if facially unconstitutional, do not approach the fundamental defectiveness or unjustness evident in R.W. The authority cited by the Fifth District in R.W. as authority to declare the statute unconstitutional was the United States Supreme Court's decision in Hormel v. Helvering, 312 U.S. 552, 61 S.Ct. 719, 85 L.Ed. 1037 (1941), in which the Court stated: Ordinarily an appellate court does not give consideration to issues not raised below. For our procedural scheme contemplates that parties shall come to issue in the trial forum vested with authority to determine questions of fact. This is essential in order that parties may have the opportunity to offer all the evidence they believe relevant to the issues which the trial tribunal is alone competent to decide; it is equally essential in order that litigants may not be surprised on appeal by final decision there of issues upon which they have had no opportunity to introduce evidence. Id. at 556, 61 S.Ct. 719. The Hormel Court did note that [t]here may always be exceptional cases or particular circumstances which will prompt a reviewing or appellate court, where injustice might otherwise result, to consider questions of law which were neither pressed nor passed upon by the court or administrative agency below. Id. at 557, 61 S.Ct. 719. This case does not present the types of patent injustice considered in Hormel and R.W. Indeed, in the filings and arguments before this Court, both Omnipoint and Miami-Dade (as well as the numerous amici curiae) argue that the ordinances in question are facially constitutional.