537 So. 2d 603 - Fieselman v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

19 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 19 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “a reasonable inference can be drawn that Fieselman, while intoxicated, placed the keys in the ignition and thus was at least at that moment in actual physical control of the vehicle while intoxicated. We believe that such an inference can be drawn since a person who has placed keys in the ignition of a vehicle may be as much in actual physical control of the vehicle as a person seated behind the wheel of the vehicle. As the court recognized in Griffin [v. State, 457 So.2d 1070 (Fla.Dist.Ct.App.1984) ], a legitimate inference to be drawn from the defendant’s sitting position behind the wheel is that the defendant “could have at any time started the automobile and driven away”; this inference is no less legitimate when it is drawn from the presence of the keys in the ignition.... [[Image here]] Lastly, we point out that evidence that the key was in the ignition does not inexorably lead to the conclusion that the defendant was in actual physical control of the vehicle. It is merely a fact — along with the defendant’s presence asleep and intoxicated in the vehicle — which, being capable of establishing the defendant’s actual physical control of the vehicle, precludes the conclusion that as a matter of law the defendant was not in actual physical control of the vehicle [[Image here]]”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. Richfield City v. Walker · State v. Prawitt

2. “Our task ... is to determine whether, from the evidence that ... a reasonable inference can be drawn that Fieselman, while intoxicated, placed the keys in the ignition and thus was at least at that moment in actual physical control of the vehicle while intoxicated.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. State v. Prawitt · 538 So. 2d 106 - Mitchell v. State

3. “The sole criterion for certiorari review of a circuit court appellate decision is whether the decision departs from the essential requirements of the law, Combs v. State, 436 So.2d 93 (Fla. 1983); see also City of Deerfield Beach v. Vaillant, 419 So.2d 624 (Fla. 1982), and the availability vel non to the ultimately convicted defendant of an adequate remedy by appeal is simply irrelevant. This is so because, unlike a trial court decision which concerns and binds only the immediate litigants, an appellate decision — including, of course, one by the circuit court — establishes law beyond the case in which the decision is rendered.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 538 So. 2d 106 - Mitchell v. State