Monday, May 03, 2004

Cert- law of the case on remand

Under ABG Real Estate Dev. Co. of Fla., Inc. v. St. Johns County, 608 So. 2d 59, 64
(Fla. 5th DCA 1992) (noting that a court's certiorari review power is limited to quashing
the order reviewed), a reviewing court cannot direct the lower court how to resolve the case on remand.

HOWEVER - in this case issued by the 2d DCA last week, the court clarifies that legal holdings in a cert decision are binding on the lower tribunal as the law of the case. The lower court cannot retry or reinterpret the case in ways that are inconsistent with the direct or implied legal determination made by the reviewing court.

This is an important limitation on the discretion of the lower tribunal to jigger its analysis to come to the same result after remand. More on other limitations later.

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