Background
Carmen Marie Q. San Nicolas appealed a judgment or sentence entered against her in the Circuit Court for Santa Rosa County, Florida, before Judge Clifton Drake. She was represented on appeal by the Office of the Public Defender, Second Judicial Circuit, through Assistant Public Defender Joel Arnold.
The State of Florida was represented by the Office of the Attorney General. The specific charges and underlying facts of the trial court proceedings are not detailed in the appellate opinion, which was issued as a per curiam affirmance without written discussion of the merits.
The Court’s Holding
The First District Court of Appeal affirmed the lower court’s judgment in a one-word per curiam opinion. Chief Judge Osterhaus and Judges Roberts and Long all concurred in the affirmance without separately writing.
The decision is not yet final and remains subject to any timely and authorized motion for rehearing or clarification under Florida Rules of Appellate Procedure 9.330 or 9.331.
Key Takeaways
- The First DCA issued a per curiam affirmance (PCA), meaning the court found no reversible error warranting discussion but provided no written legal analysis.
- A PCA has no precedential value and resolves only the specific case between the parties.
- The decision may still be challenged through a timely motion for rehearing under Fla. R. App. P. 9.330 or 9.331 before it becomes final.
Why It Matters
Per curiam affirmances are a routine procedural outcome in Florida appellate courts and signal that the panel found the lower court’s ruling free from reversible error, without identifying any issue meriting published analysis. For practitioners, a PCA forecloses further development of a legal argument at the district court level but preserves the possibility of seeking discretionary review in the Florida Supreme Court on limited grounds.
Because the opinion contains no factual or legal discussion, attorneys handling similar cases in Santa Rosa County or the First DCA’s jurisdiction should look to other published decisions for guidance on the underlying issues that may have been raised in this appeal.