Hadi Barakat d/b/a Barakat Food Store v. Florida Office of Financial Regulation

FIRST DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL STATE OF FLORIDA _____________________________

No. 1D17-3637 _____________________________

HADI BARAKAT d/b/a BARAKAT FOOD STORE,

Appellant,

v.

FLORIDA OFFICE OF FINANCIAL REGULATION,

Appellee. _____________________________

On appeal from State of Florida, Office of Financial Regulation. Drew J. Breakspear, Commissioner.

February 11, 2019

PER CURIAM.

Hadi Barakat appeals the Office of Financial Regulations’s denial of his request to contest a final order entered against him as the proprietor of a convenience store that is alleged to have engaged in transactions violating Florida check cashing laws. He claims he was out of the country and that the OFR’s service of its complaint against him on a shopkeeper and at his parent’s home was ineffectual; the OFR counters that service was proper as to both (Barakat had listed his parent’s home as an official address) and that Barakat’s affidavit is not credible. Under these circumstances, where the OFR has served notice of the complaint in facially valid ways and Barakat claims that notice was invalid

based on disputed facts, a limited remand is necessary to adjudge the matter. See Avante, Inc. v. Agency for Health Care Admin., 722 So. 2d 965 (Fla. 1st DCA 1998); Symons v. State, Dep’t of Banking and Fin., 490 So. 2d 1322 (Fla. 1st DCA 1986); Brown v. State, Dep’t of Fin. Servs., 899 So. 2d 1246 (Fla. 4th DCA 2005).

REVERSED and REMANDED. LEWIS, MAKAR, and M.K. THOMAS, JJ., concur.

_____________________________

Not final until disposition of any timely and authorized motion under Fla. R. App. P. 9.330 or 9.331. _____________________________

Michael T. King, Neptune Beach, for Appellant.

Anthony Cammarata and Miriam S. Wilkinson A.G.C., Tallahassee, for Appellee.