IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL 
FIRST DISTRICT, STATE OF FLORIDA 

DONNA L. GLIDDEN, NOT FINAL UNTIL TIME EXPIRES TO 
FILE MOTION FOR REHEARING AND 
Appellant, DISPOSITION THEREOF IF FILED 

v. 
CASE NO. 1D05-1335 
FLORIDA UNEMPLOYMENT 
APPEALS COMMISSION, 

Appellee. 

_____________________________/ 

Opinion filed January 10, 2006. 
An appeal from an order of the Unemployment Appeals Commission. 
Tommy K. Blackmon, Esq. of Community Legal Services of Mid-Florida, Inc., 


Inverness, for Appellant. 
Geri Atkinson-Hazelton, General Counsel; John D. Maher, Deputy General 
Counsel, Tallahassee, for Appellee. 


PER CURIAM. 


Claimant, Donna L. Glidden, challenges an order of the Unemployment 
Appeals Commission (“Commission”) affirming the appeals referee’s decision that 
she was disqualified from receiving unemployment compensation benefits because she 
was discharged for misconduct connected with work. Claimant argues that following 
her first appeal, the Commission erred in preventing her from presenting evidence at 
the hearing on remand other than that regarding new matters or changed conditions 
that occurred after claimant’s previous hearing before the Public Employees Relations 
Commission (“PERC”). Having already addressed this issue in claimant’s initial 
appeal, we again reverse and remand. 

After claimant was discharged from her position as a Juvenile Detention Officer 
with the Department of Juvenile Justice, she appealed her dismissal to PERC. PERC 
held an evidentiary hearing, made factual findings regarding claimant’s dismissal, and 
concluded that claimant was properly dismissed for cause. Claimant subsequently 
filed a petition for unemployment compensation benefits, and the Agency for 
Workforce Innovation (“Agency”) determined that benefits were not payable because 
she was discharged for misconduct connected with work. On appeal from the 
Agency’s decision, the appeals referee found that, pursuant to the principle of estoppel 
by judgment, claimant was bound by PERC’s findings in the unemployment 
compensation proceedings. Thus, the referee limited the hearing to closing 
statements. Based on PERC’s findings, the referee found that claimant engaged in 
misconduct connected with work and, accordingly, was disqualified from receiving 
benefits. The Commission affirmed the referee’s decision. We subsequently reversed 
and remanded for further proceedings because claimant “was denied the right to 
present evidence at the final hearing before the appeals referee.” See Glidden v. Dep’t 
of Juvenile Justice, 870 So. 2d 962, 962 (Fla. 1st DCA 2004). 

On remand, the Commission directed the appeals referee to conduct a hearing 
and to permit the parties to present evidence regarding new matters or changed 
conditions that had occurred since the PERC hearing. Pursuant to the order, the 
appeals referee limited the hearing to such evidence despite claimant’s assertion that 
because she was discharged prior to the PERC hearing, no relevant evidence had come 
to exist since it was conducted. Following the hearing, at which neither party 
presented any evidence, the appeals referee reinstated her previous decision that 
benefits were not payable because claimant was discharged for misconduct connected 
with work, and the Commission affirmed that decision. This appeal followed. 

As claimant argues, “‘[T]he doctrines of res judicata or estoppel by judgment 
are not applicable under the facts of the case where two separate and distinct 
governmental units independently considered similar factual allegation[s] but for 
different purposes.’” Newberry v. Fla. Dep’t of Law Enforcement, Criminal Justice 
Standards & Training Comm’n, 585 So. 2d 500, 501 (Fla. 3d DCA 1991) (quoting 
Todd v. Carroll, 347 So. 2d 618, 619 (Fla. 4th DCA 1977)); see also Walley v. Fla. 
Game & Fresh Water Fish Comm’n, 501 So. 2d 671, 674 (Fla. 1st DCA 1987) 
(holding that collateral estoppel did not bar the Career Service Commission from 
dismissing the appellant for failure to disclose material information regarding criminal 
activities on his employment application where the Criminal Justice Standards and 
Training Commission had considered the same alleged falsification in ruling on a 
decertification complaint against the appellant because of the clear disparity of issues 
before the two agencies, which were engaged in different functions). Because PERC 
and the Commission are two separate and distinct agencies that consider similar 
factual allegations for different purposes, the doctrine of estoppel by judgment should 
never have been applied in this case. Additionally, estoppel by judgment was 
inapplicable in this case because the standard applicable to PERC’s determination was 
different from the standard applicable to the Commission’s decision. See State, Dep’t 
of Health & Rehabilitative Servs. v. Vernon, 379 So. 2d 683, 684 (Fla. 2d DCA 1980). 

As such, claimant was entitled to a full hearing before the appeals referee on the 
issue of whether she engaged in misconduct connected with work, at which she should 
have been able to present any admissible evidence relevant to that issue. Contrary to 
the Commission’s argument, our opinion in Glidden, 870 So. 2d at 962, was intended 
to provide her with such a hearing. 

Accordingly, we REVERSE and REMAND for further proceedings. 




ERVIN, DAVIS and LEWIS, JJ., CONCUR.