Court Opinion

ID: 9669338
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 02:50:09.975556+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:15:55.084568
License: Public Domain

OPINION
SUMMERS, Judge.
The appellant, James M. Bishop, filed a pro se petition for writ of habeas corpus challenging the Department of Correction’s disciplinary ruling which increased his release eligibility date. The trial court dismissed appellant’s petition without an eviden-tiary hearing. From this dismissal, appellant now appeals contending that he is entitled to have his petition transferred to the Chancery Court of Davidson County as a petition for writ of certiorari.
• We affirm the trial court’s judgment of dismissal.
Appellant is incarcerated on multiple offenses including burglary, aggravated robbery, and first-degree murder. In 1989, he escaped while assigned to the Nashville Community Work Release Center in Nashville, Tennessee, and was subsequently convicted. In a separate disciplinary proceeding conducted by the Department of Correction, ap*296pellant pled guilty to the escape and his release eligibility date was increased by 20%.
In its order denying appellant relief, the trial court correctly found that appellant’s petition for writ of habeas corpus was not the proper method to challenge the Department of Correction’s disciplinary action. There is no indication that his convictions are void or that his sentence of imprisonment or other restraint has expired. Archer v. State, 851 S.W.2d 157, 164 (Tenn.1993). Appellant presents no facts supporting grounds for ha-beas corpus relief.
Nor may appellant proceed under the Uniform Administrative Procedures Act. T.C.A. §§ 4-5-101 to -324. As the Tennessee Supreme Court made clear in Slagle v. Reynolds, 845 S.W.2d 167, 169 (Tenn.1992), the legislature specifically excluded disciplinary proceedings of the Department of Correction from the provisions of the Act. T.C.A. § 4-5-106. The proper procedure for a prisoner seeking review of a disciplinary action of the Department of Correction is by petition for writ of certiorari. T.C.A. §§ 27-8-101, -102. The writ must be filed within 60 days from the final decision of the reviewing board or commission. T.C.A. § 27-9-102.
We also find that appellant filed his petition in the wrong court. Because appellant seeks relief against an agency of state government, the writ should have been filed in the county which is the official situs of the agency’s head office. The proper courts in this instance are the courts of Davidson County. Brigham v. Lack, 755 S.W.2d 469, 471 (Tenn.Crim.App.1988).
Appellant realizes that he has filed an inappropriate petition in the wrong court. However, he maintains that this Court has the authority to convert his petition for writ of habeas corpus to a writ of certiorari and transfer it to the courts of Davidson County. We disagree.
We find no authority, statutory or otherwise, which would allow this Court to transfer appellant’s ease across jurisdictional boundaries.1 Furthermore, we can find no authority which would allow this Court to convert the appellant’s habeas corpus petition into a petition for writ of certiorari. Appellant appears to rely on the decision of Fallin v. Knox County Board of Commissioners, 656 S.W.2d 338 (Tenn.1983), for its proposition. In Fallin, the Supreme Court determined that an action for declaratory judgment is the proper vehicle by which to seek invalidation of a zoning ordinance. However, rather than allow dismissal, the Court permitted an improperly filed writ of certiorari to be treated as an action for a declaratory judgment to review zoning legislation. 656 S.W.2d at 342. In doing so, the Court allowed a remedy within the trial court’s jurisdiction to be treated as a different remedy still within the trial court’s jurisdiction. It is a far stretch from Fallin to allow a court exercising criminal jurisdiction to convert the remedy of habeas corpus to a civil action and to order that matter transferred to the civil courts of Davidson County. We find that this Court is without the jurisdiction to do so.
Even if we had found the authority to transfer this matter to the courts of Davidson County as a writ of certiorari, we still find that appellant would not be entitled to relief. From the record that is available to us on review, it appears that the disciplinary action against appellant took place on November 2,1991, and that he pled guilty to the disciplinary charges on November 7, 1991. This appears to be the last action taken on the matter until appellant’s filing of the writ of habeas corpus on December 22,1993. Appellant’s filing of the petition was well outside the 60-day statute of limitations for filing a petition for a writ of certiorari. T.C.A. § 27-9-102. This issue is without merit.
AFFIRMED.
HAYES, J., and PAUL R. SUMMERS, Special Judge, concur.

. We are aware of our Court's decision in Richard Lynn Norton v. Don Everhart, Warden, No. 03CO1-9205-CR-00186, 1993 WL 430644 (Tenn.Crim.App., Knoxville, October 26, 1993) (Rule 11 Application Granted March 28, 1994), which ruled that this Court has “inherent authority” to make such transfers; however, we decline to follow this reasoning.