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Meyer v. Burgess
Citations: 635 So. 2d 82; 1994 Fla. App. LEXIS 178; 1994 WL 11635Docket: No. 93-2839
Court: District Court of Appeal of Florida; January 19, 1994; Florida; State Appellate Court
Oscar Meyer filed a petition for a writ of certiorari to quash a circuit court order requiring him to produce financial records. The court denied the petition, finding no departure from the essential requirements of law. Meyer had initiated a lawsuit challenging the valuation of his real property, naming the county property appraiser as the defendant. Initially certified as insolvent, the defendant contested this status, prompting a motion to compel the discovery of Meyer's financial records for the past three years after he refused to provide them voluntarily. Meyer raised several arguments against the order, including claims of a constitutional right to privacy and the irrelevance of his personal finances to the insolvency determination. He cited case law suggesting that confidential financial information should not be relevant in insolvency matters. The court found these arguments unconvincing, noting that the right to privacy under Article I, Section 23 of the Florida Constitution did not outweigh the public interest in ensuring that only qualified individuals receive fee waivers under section 57.081, Florida Statutes. The court emphasized that the requested discovery was pertinent to assessing Meyer's insolvency and distinguished his cited cases on the grounds that those involved financial matters unrelated to certification for insolvency. The court affirmed that the standard for determining insolvency under section 57.081(1) was sufficiently definite, allowing for inquiries into a litigant's ability to pay costs. Ultimately, the court concluded that the trial court acted within the law in compelling the production of financial records, and the petition for certiorari was denied. Judges Zehmer, Smith, and Lawrence concurred with the decision.