Opinion
No. 4D00-0192.
Opinion filed February 23, 2000.
Appeal from the Circuit Court for the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit, Palm Beach County; Jack H. Cook, Judge; L.T. No. CL 98-4029 AJ.
Genie Holcombe Rothman of Genie H. Rothman, P.A., Boca Raton, for appellants.
Sachs, Sax Klein, P.A., Boca Raton, for appellee.
ORDER DISMISSING APPEAL
Final summary judgment was entered against appellants in the circuit court. The trial court denied a motion for rehearing on December 10, 1999. Between 8:30 a.m. and 9:00 a.m. on January 11, 2000, appellant filed a notice of appeal in this court. Under Florida Rules of Appellate Procedure, the last day to file a notice of appeal was January 10, 2000. See Fla.R.App.P. 9.110(b); 9.420(e).
For review of final orders of lower tribunals, Florida Rule of Appellate Procedure 9.110(b) provides that jurisdiction of this court is "invokedby filing two copies of a notice, accompanied by filing fees prescribed by law, with the clerk of the lower tribunal within thirty days of rendition of the order to be reviewed." Under the rule this notice of appeal should have been filed with the clerk of the circuit court. Rule 9.040(b), however, states that when a "proceeding is commenced in an inappropriate court, that court shall transfer the cause to an appropriate court."
In the past, this court had a drop box in which papers could be delivered to the court after hours and would be stamped in the next day by the clerk as having been filed on the previous day. The drop box would be opened at 7:30 a.m., one half hour prior to the court opening, so that only papers placed in the box prior to opening would be considered filed as of the previous day. Because of our concerns about security for persons using the drop box at night, we eliminated the box several years ago, but adopted a practice of accepting papers filed by 9:00 a.m. the next day as having been filed on the previous day.
We presently follow this procedure.
In the present case, appellants' counsel came to the court after the court was open and advised the clerk that she was entitled to have her untimely notice of appeal clocked in as having been filed on the previous day because of our above-described practice. She apparently recognized that she would be unable to timely file the notice of appeal in the proper court, the circuit court, and was attempting to solve that problem by taking advantage of our procedure. Our deputy clerk acquiesced in counsel's request and stamped the notice of appeal as having been received on the prior day, January 10, 2000, and then called it to our attention to determine timeliness.
When we eliminated our drop box and agreed to accept papers filed by 9:00 a.m. as having been deemed filed on the previous day, we did so as a convenience to parties for the purpose of filing non-jurisdictional documents such as briefs. While this court may adopt local rules and practices that pertain to non-jurisdictional matters within its discretion, it may not usurp the constitutional power of the supreme court "to adopt rules for the practice and procedure in all courts including the time for seeking appellate review." Art. V, § 2(a), Fla. Const. It is extremely well-established in this state that neither trial nor appellate courts can extend the time for filing a notice of appeal "no matter what" the reason. Congregation Temple De Hirsch v. Aronson, 128 So.2d 585, 586 (Fla. 1961), citing numerous cases. The appeal is dismissed for lack of jurisdiction.
KLEIN, SHAHOOD and GROSS, JJ., concur.