Negron v. Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections
Opinion of the Court
Carlos Juan Negron, a Florida prisoner proceeding pro se, appeals from the denial of his pro se motion to alter or amend the judgment under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 59(e). We granted Negron a certificate of appealability (COA) on one issue: whether the district court abused its discretion by denying Negron’s motion to alter or amend the dismissal of his 28 U.S.C. § 2254 petition as time-barred. After review of the record and the parties’ briefs, we affirm.
I. DISCUSSION
A COA
Initially, we consider whether the COA was defective under 28 U.S.C. § 2253(c), in light of Spencer v. United States, 773 F.3d 1132, 1137-38 (11th Cir. 2014) (en banc), cert. denied, — U.S. -, 135 S.Ct. 2836, 192 L.Ed.2d 877 (2015). Neither an appellate judge nor a district court judge may issue a COA of a final order in a § 2254 proceeding unless the applicant has made a substantial showing of the denial of a constitutional -right. 28 U.S.C. § 2253(c)(1)(A), (2). The COA
In Spencer, we concluded the COA we had issued was defective because it failed to identify- an underlying constitutional issue, as required by § 2253(c)(3). Spencer, 773 F.3d at 1137-38. Nonetheless, we declined to vacate the COA and considered the merits of the certified issues because: (1) the parties already had litigated the issues before the district court and briefed and orally argued the issues before both a panel of this Court and the en banc Court; (2) the en banc Court had heard oral argument by an amicus curiae; and (3) both parties urged the Court not to vacate the defective COA. Id. However, we cautioned that we would vacate COAs in future appeals if the COAs failed to specify a constitutional issue that jurists of reason would find debatable because such COAs violate the text of § 2253(c)(3). Id. at 1138.
In this case, our COA order, issued after Spencer, does not specify an underlying constitutional issue. Nonetheless, the parties have briefed the merits of the issue in the, COA, and the case is ready for our consideration of that issue. In addition, the COA defect is not jurisdictional. See Gonzalez, 132 S.Ct. at 649-52. Negron states at least one colorable constitutional claim in his petition — whether his trial counsel rendered ineffective assistance by failing to contest the sufficiency of the indictment. Therefore, we exercise our discretion to consider the merits of the issue in the COA notwithstanding any deficiency in the COA order. See Spencer, 773 F.3d at 1137; see also Damren v. Florida, 776 F.3d 816, 820-21 (11th Cir. 2015).
B. Denial of motion to alter or amend the judgment
Negron contends the district court abused its discretion in denying his motion to alter or amend the judgment because his § 2254 petition was timely filed. Specifically, he asserts the statutory tolling periods resulting from his properly filed state post-conviction motions ended five days after the mandates were issued because five days are added' to the period for a party to conduct an action after service when service is made by mail, citing Florida Rule of Judicial Administration 2.514(b). Negron also asserts the time his motion for belated rehearing of his Rule 3.850 motion was pending should be tolled as the 15-day time limit on filing motions for rehearing is not regularly followed.
As an initial matter, Negron improperly used his motion to alter or amend to raise new arguments. See Arthur, 500 F.3d at 1343 (stating a motion to alter or amend the judgment cannot be used to relitigate old issues or raise new arguments that could have been raised prior to the entry of judgment). Negron argued for the first time in his motion to alter or amend the judgment that the motion for belated rehearing tolled the limitations period and that the state post-conviction applications should have tolled the limitations period until five days after the District Court of Appeal issued its mandates. Negron could have presented those claims in his reply brief because the underlying facts supporting those claims were established at that time.
Alternatively, the district court did not abuse its discretion by denying Negron’s
Second, the district court’s implicit conclusion that Negron’s untimely motion for rehearing did not toll the limitations period was not a manifest error of law or fact. See Walton v. Sec’y, Fla. Dep’t of Corr., 661 F.3d 1308, 1311 (11th Cir. 2011) (“An untimely state petition is not “properly filed” and cannot toll the federal limitation period.”). There is no published opinion from this Court concluding that Florida’s 15-day filing period for rehearing motions was not a firmly established and regularly followed rule. See id. (stating a petitioner’s failure to comply with a rule governing filings only results in an improperly filed petition if the rule was firmly established and regularly followed); In re District of Columbia, 792 F.3d 96, 97-98 (D.C.Cir. 2015) (explaining manifest error occurs only if the district court failed to apply the correct legal standard, reached a decision squarely foreclosed by precedent, or committed a plain and indisputable error “that amounts to a complete disregard of the controlling law or the credible evidence in the record”). For these reasons, we find no manifest error of law or fact in the district court’s timeliness determination, and it did not abuse its discretion by denying Negron’s motion to alter or amend the judgment.
II. CONCLUSION
Therefore, we affirm the district court’s denial of Negron’s motion to alter or amend the judgment.
AFFIRMED.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Carlos Juan NEGRON v. SECRETARY, FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS, Florida Attorney General
- Status
- Published