Court Opinion

ID: 8209893
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2022-09-28 16:02:23.261776+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T16:41:45.564692
License: Public Domain

FIRST DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL
                  STATE OF FLORIDA
                 _____________________________

                         No. 1D20-1003
                 _____________________________

HUGH KUNSELMAN,

    Appellant,

    v.

OFFICES OF GOVERNOR, and
STATE OF FLORIDA, et al.,

    Appellees.
                 _____________________________

On appeal from the Circuit Court for Bradford County.
David P. Kreider, Judge.

                       September 28, 2022

LONG, J.

     Appellant, a prisoner, argues the trial court erred in
interpreting his pleading as a postconviction motion and
transferring it to the court with jurisdiction over Appellant’s
criminal case. Appellant further argues his pleading was not a
collateral criminal proceeding but was instead an attempt at a civil
action to represent other prisoners. We have jurisdiction to hear
this appeal because a nonfinal order transferring a postconviction
motion to the proper jurisdiction “concern[s] venue.” Fla. R. App.
P. 9.130(a)(3)(A); Myrick v. Inch, 303 So. 3d 269 (Fla. 2d DCA
2020).
     “In appellate proceedings the decision of a trial court has the
presumption of correctness and the burden is on the appellant to
demonstrate error.” Applegate v. Barnett Bank of Tallahassee, 377
So. 2d 1150, 1152 (Fla. 1979). Appellant’s filing below was
confusing and did not state any proper cause of action—criminal
or civil. It was a compilation of various statements without any
substance. We cannot say the trial court reversibly erred in its
construction of the pleading, and so Appellant has not carried his
burden on appeal.

    AFFIRMED.

RAY and NORDBY, JJ., concur.

                 _____________________________

    Not final until disposition of any timely and
    authorized motion under Fla. R. App. P. 9.330 or
    9.331.
               _____________________________

Hugh Kunselman, pro se, Appellant.

Ashley Moody, Attorney General, and Kristen J. Lonergan,
Assistant Attorney General, Tallahassee, for Appellees.

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