An 18th Circuit judge has refused state transportation officials' request to rehear a case in which he threw out thousands of toll violation tickets for SunPass and E-Pass users who had accounts in good standing, saying his detailed opinion issued last month canceled any need for further discussion.

Last month, Seminole County Judge John Galluzzo barred the Department of Transportation from issuing toll-running tickets to users of E-Pass and SunPass in Brevard and Seminole counties.

He also ordered clerks of court in both counties to refuse to honor any citations unless transportation officials filed an affidavit confirming the driver does not have an account with E-Pass or SunPass, Local6 News partner Florida Today reported. Both use an electronic transponder to automatically deduct toll road payments from a prepaid account.

The order stemmed from an appeal brought by Christopher Baird, an Osceola County firefighter and paramedic who almost lost his job because of toll tickets accumulated due to a faulty E-Pass transponder in his wife's car. The tickets were sent to an incorrect address.

Under Florida statute, SunPass and E-Pass users are exempt from automatic enforcement through tickets because the agencies have mechanisms in place, such as credit and debit card numbers, that allow them to readily obtain the money for toll violations, Galluzzo said.

Transportation officials said the decision was too broad and asked Galluzzo to rehear the case.

In an opinion issued late Friday morning, Galluzzo refused.

"This court need not readdress matters fully explained in its opinion," Galluzzo wrote.

Galluzzo said the court system has a duty to protect the public from great harm.

Transportation officials suggest "an appellate court cannot grant relief in a matter of great public importance and would rather suggest that the efficient administration of justice requires thousands of litigants who have been harmed by their actions to continue to suffer," Galluzzo wrote. "No court turns a blind eye toward the very citizens whose rights it is charged with upholding when a great harm exists just because a litigant such as the (Department of Transportation) refuses to acknowledge that existence."

Transportation officials didn’t immediately return to a message left for comment.

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