## Facts

- A newspaper filed a “good-cause” petition under section 119.07(7)(a), Florida Statutes (2002), seeking judicial access to confidential public records held by a state agency.
- The petition was filed in Palm Beach County, where the agency’s regional office maintained the requested records.
- The agency’s headquarters and official residence for venue purposes was in Leon County.
- The agency objected to personal jurisdiction and moved to transfer venue to Leon County under Florida’s home venue privilege.
- The trial court denied transfer, reasoning the policy justifications for the home venue privilege were not implicated in this type of records-access proceeding.
- The district court affirmed, concluding the agency waived its personal-jurisdiction objection by also seeking a venue transfer and agreeing the privilege need not apply on case-specific policy grounds.

## Issues

1. Whether a defendant waives a timely objection to personal jurisdiction by simultaneously moving to transfer venue.
2. Whether a section 119.07(7)(a) “good-cause” petition requires formal service of process to obtain personal jurisdiction over a state agency.
3. Whether courts may decline to apply the home venue privilege based on case-specific policy considerations when no recognized exception applies.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court of Florida quashed the district court’s decision and remanded.
- The Court held the agency did not waive its personal-jurisdiction objection by filing a contemporaneous motion to transfer venue.
- The Court held the petitioning party was required to effect service of process; filing the petition alone did not confer personal jurisdiction.
- The Court held the home venue privilege is mandatory absent a recognized exception or express statutory displacement, and the trial court erred by refusing to apply it on policy grounds.

## Legal Principles

- A timely, expressly asserted objection to personal jurisdiction is not waived merely because the defendant simultaneously seeks a venue transfer.
- A “good-cause” petition under section 119.07(7)(a) is an action of a civil nature governed by the Florida Rules of Civil Procedure; personal jurisdiction over a state agency requires proper service of process.
- Florida’s home venue privilege is a substantive rule requiring suits against a state agency to be brought in the county of its official residence unless a recognized exception applies or a statute expressly provides otherwise.
- Trial courts may not create ad hoc, case-specific exceptions to the home venue privilege based on their assessment that the privilege’s policy rationales are not implicated.

## Conclusion

The Florida Supreme Court held that a public-records “good-cause” petition must be served to establish personal jurisdiction and that the state agency home venue privilege must be enforced absent a recognized exception or express statutory override, regardless of case-specific policy considerations.


Fla. Dep’t of Child. & Fams. v. Sun-Sentinel, Inc., 865 So. 2d 1278 (Fla. 2004)