COMMUNITIES FINANCE COMPANY, LLC and WCI Communities, Inc., Petitioners,
v.
Paul BJORK and Rana Khaled, Respondents.
District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fourth District.
*232 Joseph Ianno, Jr. and Thomas E. Warner of Carlton Fields, P.A., West Palm Beach, for petitioners.
No appearance for respondents.
PER CURIAM.
The above styled petition for writ of certiorari is hereby dismissed for failure to establish any irreparable harm that cannot be remedied on direct appeal. Bared & Co., Inc. v. McGuire,
FARMER and STEVENSON, JJ., concur.
KLEIN, J., concurs specially with opinion.
KLEIN, J., specially concurring.
Although I agree with the dismissal of this petition for certiorari, I am writing to explain my disagreement with a case cited by the majority, Topp Telecom, Inc. v. Atkins,
I concur in the majority opinion except as to its conclusion that unless the order puts the petitioner out of business, certiorari is never available to address a discovery order that imposes an undue burden, regardless of how clearly demonstrated in the record. In my judgment, certiorari relief is available where the record is clear that an order is so overbroad or burdensome as to impose substantial and irreparable harm, although such is not the case here for the reasons set forth in the majority opinion.
Topp,
I agree with Judge Stone and would add that the financial ruin dicta in Topp is contrary to the opinion of the Florida Supreme Court in Elkins v. Syken,
Discovery was never intended to be used as a tactical tool to harass an adversary in a manner that actually chills the availability of information by non-party witnesses; nor was it intended to make the discovery process so expensive that it could effectively deny access to information and witnesses or force parties to resolve their disputes unjustly. To allow discovery that is overly burdensome and that harasses, embarrasses, and annoys one's adversary would lead to a lack of public confidence in the credibility of the civil court process.
In this case the discovery was not unduly burdensome or overbroad under any standard, because the trial court was careful to limit it. It is for that reason, and not for the reason that the discovery fails to meet the "financial ruin" standard, that I am agreeing to dismiss the petition.
