Clerk of the Court and Comptroller for the 13th Judicial Circuit, Hillsborough County, Florida v. Angie Rangel; Efrain Ruiz-Diaz; and State of Florida

Summary

The Florida Second District Court of Appeal affirmed orders setting aside the forfeiture of cash bonds posted for a criminal defendant who was deported and denying the Clerk's motion to vacate. The court held that section 903.26, Florida Statutes, applies to cash bonds and that section 903.286 does not preclude discharge of a forfeited cash bond. It further held that the asserted sixty-day timing issue concerned waivable case jurisdiction, which the Clerk waived by failing to raise it in the trial court.

Holdings

1. Section 903.26 applies to the forfeiture and discharge of bonds, including cash bonds, because its text does not distinguish between bonds posted by a surety and bonds posted in cash by or on behalf of a defendant.
2. The sixty-day timing requirement in section 903.26 concerns case or procedural jurisdiction, not subject matter jurisdiction; it does not eliminate the court's subject matter jurisdiction to decide a timely pending motion when the court fails to rule within sixty days.
3. The Clerk waived its objection to the circuit court's alleged lack of case jurisdiction by failing to raise the objection in the trial court when responding to the discharge motion and again when moving to vacate the discharge order.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the circuit court's order discharging the cash-bond forfeiture was void because section 903.26 did not authorize discharge of a cash bond and section 903.286 was the controlling statute.
2. Whether the circuit court lost jurisdiction to decide the motion to discharge because it did not hear and rule on the motion within sixty days after forfeiture.
3. Whether the Clerk preserved its objection that the circuit court lacked jurisdiction to rule on the discharge motion.

Disposition

affirmed