This petition for writ of certiorari seeks review of an order of the circuit court which granted a petition for writ of mandamus which challenged a prison disciplinary action. We grant the petition.
Inmate Malara exhausted his administrative remedies as to a prison disciplinary action. His final appeal to the Secretary of the Department of Corrections (DOC) was denied and filed with the agency clerk on March 5, 2010. Malara filed a petition for writ of mandamus in the circuit court which had a service date of April 5, 2010. This would have been within the 30-day time limit of section 95.11(8), Florida Statutes; however, the date stamp on the face of the petition indicated that it was provided to prison officials on April 6, 2010, which would have been one day late. The date stamp contains Malara’s initials and the initials of a second person, presumably a DOC employee. DOC filed a motion to dismiss in the circuit court arguing that Malara’s petition for writ of mandamus was filed outside the 30-day time limit of section 95.11(8). The circuit court denied the motion to dismiss stating that it was constrained by the holding in Thompson v. State,
DOC now argues that Malara’s petition for writ of mandamus was untimely filed in the circuit court and subject to dismissal under section 95.11(8), because the official date stamp showing when the petition was provided to prison officials for mailing was dated and initialed by Malara on April 6, 2010, beyond the 30-day statute of limitations of section 95.11(8). We agree.
Section 95.11(8), Florida Statutes (2010), provides that “[a]ny court action challenging prisoner disciplinary proceedings conducted by the Department ... must be commenced within 30 days after final disposition of the prisoner disciplinary proceedings through the administrative grievance process under chapter 33, Florida Administrative Code.” This time period is jurisdictional and, thus, a mandamus petition filed more than 30 days after the final disposition of a disciplinary proceeding must be dismissed. See, e.g., Hale v. McDonough,
In Houston v. Lack,
Following Thompson, DOC promulgated rule 33-210.102(8)(g), Florida Administrative Code, which provides in pertinent part:
Inmates shall present all outgoing legal mail unsealed to the mail collection representative to determine, in the presence of the inmate, that the correspondence is legal mail, bears that inmate’s return address and signature, and that it contains no unauthorized items.... [T]he mail collection representative shall stamp the document(s) to be mailed and the inmate’s copy, if provided by the inmate. The date stamp shall be in the following format: “Provided to (name of institution) on (day, month and year blank to insert date) for mailing, by (officer’s initials).” The mail collection representative shall then have the inmate initial the document(s) next to the stamp and have the inmate seal the envelope in the mail collection representative’s presence. For confinement areas, the staff member who picks up the legal mail each day shall stamp the documents, have the inmate place his or her initials next to the stamp, and have the inmate seal the envelope in the staff member’s presence. The use of mail drop boxes for outgoing legal mail is prohibited.
Because DOC has established a procedure for tracking the date that legal mail changes hands for purposes of establishing jurisdictional timeframes in court proceedings as suggested in Thompson, DOC has a mechanism to rebut the presumption that the inmate’s assertion that his pleading was actually placed in the hands of prison or jail officials on a particular date.
Accordingly, the final order of the circuit court is quashed and the cause is remanded for further proceedings.
