Secretary of the State of Florida, Dept. of Corrections v. Tondee

DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL OF FLORIDA
SECOND DISTRICT
RICKY D. DIXON, SECRETARY OF THE
DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS,
Appellant,
v.
JASON TONDEE,
Appellee.
No. 2D2024-2140
November 21, 2025
Appeal from the Circuit Court for Pasco County; Gregory G. Groger,
Judge.
Ricky D. Dixon, Secretary, and Kelly R. Forren, Assistant General
Counsel, Tallahassee, for Appellant.
No appearance for Appellee.
PER CURIAM.
Affirmed.
LaROSE and SMITH, JJ., Concur.
BLACK, J., Concurs separately with opinion.

2
BLACK, Judge, concurring separately.
This court "work[s] within the framework of the briefs, and it is not
our function to rebrief an appeal." Simmons v. State, 402 So. 3d 473,
474 (Fla. 2d DCA 2025) (quoting Manatee Cnty. Sch. Bd. v. Nationsrent,
Inc., 989 So. 2d 23, 25 (Fla. 2d DCA 2008)); see also State v. Garcia, 346
So. 3d 581, 585 (Fla. 2022) ("[A]n appellate court should confine parties'
arguments to those raised in the courts below."). Given the arguments
presented by the Florida Department of Corrections below and in its brief
before this court, affirmance is the correct result. I write only to note
that in determining that section 27.02, Florida Statutes (2023),
controlled the outcome of the Department's motion for a civil restitution
lien under section 960.292, Florida Statutes (2023), the circuit court did
not address the applicability of section 960.296(1): "This civil restitution
lien act supersedes law to the contrary. Notwithstanding any provision
of law to the contrary, the provisions of this civil restitution lien act are
controlling over any conflicting law." See Conage v. United States, 346
So. 3d 594, 598 (Fla. 2022) (stating that "[i]t would be a mistake to think
that our law of statutory interpretation requires interpreters to make a
threshold determination of whether a term has a 'plain' or 'clear' meaning
in isolation" and that courts should look to "the language itself, the
specific context in which that language is used, and the broader context
of the statute as a whole" (quoting Robinson v. Shell Oil Co., 519 U.S.
337, 341 (1997))).
Opinion subject to revision prior to official publication.