STATE FARM MUTUAL AUTOMOBILE INSURANCE COMPANY, APPELLANT,
v.
CELIA JENKINS, APPELLEE
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State Farm sought a set-off of the tortfeasor's $10,000 liability insurance policy limits against its $20,000 uninsured motorist coverage, arguing it should not pay the full $20,000 when damages were $40,000. The court held that uninsured motorist coverage is excess over liability insurance benefits and cannot duplicate them, requiring State Farm to pay only $10,000 in uninsured motorist benefits.
State Farm is entitled to a set-off of the $10,000 liability insurance recovery against its $20,000 uninsured motorist coverage. Jenkins is entitled to only $10,000 in uninsured motorist benefits because the statutory requirement that uninsured motorist coverage be excess over and not duplicate liability insurance benefits requires the reduction.
[1] Uninsured motorist coverage is excess over, but shall not duplicate, benefits available to an insured from the owner or operator of the uninsured motor vehicle or any oth…
[2] An uninsured motorist carrier is entitled to a set-off of monies received by its insured from an uninsured tortfeasor when the damages sustained by the insured are less t…
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“shall be excess over but shall not duplicate the benefits available to an insured under any workmen's compensation law, disability benefits law, or any similar law; under any automobile liability or automobile medical expense coverages; or from the owner or operator of the uninsured motor vehicle”
The statutory language governing uninsured motorist coverage, establishing that it is excess and cannot duplicate liability insurance benefits
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceCelia Jenkins was injured in a collision on October 29, 1973. The tortfeasor, Evelyn Berger, had $10,000 in liability insurance that was recovered by …
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MILLS, Acting Chief Judge.
The issue before us is whether an uninsured motorist carrier is entitled to a set-off of any monies received by its insured from an uninsured/underinsured tortfeasor when the damages sustained by the insured are greater than the sum of the insured’s uninsured motorist limits and the liability insurance limits available to the insured from the tortfeasor’s liability insurance carrier. State Farm appeals from a final judgment holding that it was not entitled to a set-off of the $10,000 liability insurance limits of the third party tortfeasor against its $20,000 uninsured motorist limits where the insured’s damages were established by a jury at $40,000.
On 29 October 1973, Celia Jenkins was injured in a collision between the car in which she was a passenger and a car driven by Evelyn Berger. Jenkins recovered the $10,000 policy limits of Berger’s liability insurance policy. The driver and owner of the car in which Jenkins was riding were covered by $20,000 of uninsured motorist insurance issued by State Farm. Jenkins brought suit against State Farm to recover the balance of her damages up to the policy limits of the uninsured motorist coverage. Jenkins’ total damages were determined by the jury to be $40,000.
The trial court entered final judgment finding that although Jenkins had recovered the $10,000 policy limits of the tortfeasor, the $20,000 uninsured motorist coverage constituted “excess coverage, and since plaintiff’s damages were $40,000, the defendant is not entitled to any set-off or credit against its policy limits.” Judgment was then entered against State Farm for $25,053, representing the $20,000 uninsured motorist policy limit, $4,500 in attorney’s fees, and $553 in taxable costs. We reverse.
Section 627.727(1), Florida Statutes (1977), provides in pertinent part that uninsured motorist coverage
“shall be excess over but shall not duplicate the benefits available to an insured under any workmen’s compensation law, disability benefits law, or any similar law; under any automobile liability or automobile medical expense coverages; or from the owner or operator of the uninsured motor vehicle or any other person or organization jointly or severally liable together with such owner or operator for the accident.”
The basic theory of uninsured motorist coverage is to allow the insured the same recovery which would have been available to him had the tortfeasor been insured to the same extent as the insured himself. Dewberry v. Auto-Owners Insurance Company, 363 So. 2d 1077 (Fla.1978).
The statute clearly states that uninsured motorist coverage shall be excess over but shall not duplicate benefits available to an insured under any automobile liability coverages from the owner or operator of the uninsured motorist vehicle. Dewberry v. Auto-Owners Insurance Company, supra.
Here, the $10,000 limit of the tortfeasor’s liability coverage was paid to Jenkins. This sum reduces the $20,000 maximum uninsured motorist coverage available to Jenkins by $10,000. Otherwise, $10,000 of the $20,000 uninsured motorist coverage would be duplicated by the $10,000 benefits paid by the tortfeasor’s automobile liability insurance coverage which is prohibited by Section 627.727(1). Thus, Jenkins is entitled to only $10,000, the excess uninsured motorist benefits.
The case of Government Employees Insurance Company v. Shelly, 347 So. 2d 124 (Fla. 4th DCA 1977), which was relied upon by the trial court and by Jenkins, is not applicable to the facts of this case. Shelly did not consider Section 627.727(1) which controls this case and Dewberry obviously overrules Shelly if it was applicable.
We would like to point out that the Dewberry decision was rendered after the trial court entered its final judgment.
We reverse the final judgment and remand to the trial court with instructions to enter judgment for Jenkins in the amount of $15,053 representing $10,000 uninsured motorist coverage, $4,500 attorney’s fees and $553 taxable costs.
ERVIN, J., and MASON, ERNEST E., Associate Judge, concur.
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United States Fid. & Guar. Co. v. Fitzgerald, 521 So. 2d 122 (Fla. 4th DCA 1987)…’ lack of coverage. She cites cases that explain the object of the uninsured motorist statute to be to enable an insured to recover that which the insured could recover if the tort-feasor were insured. State Farm Mutual Insurance Company v. Jenkins, 370 So. 2d 1201 (Fla. 1st DCA 1979); Government Employees Insurance Company v. Graff, 327 So. 2d 88 (Fla. 1st DCA 1976). She reads the words “or damaged” in the following excerpt from Brown v. Progressive Mutual Insurance Company, 249 So. 2d 429, 430 (Fla.1971), as…
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Fla. Farm Bureau Cas. Ins. Co. v. Calvert, 381 So. 2d 1160 (Fla. 3d DCA 1980)…PER CURIAM. Affirmed. Sections 627.428 and 627.727, Fla.Stat. (1975); State Farm Mutual Automobile Ins. Co. v. Jenkins, 370 So. 2d 1201 (Fla. 1st DCA 1979); State Farm Mutual Automobile Ins. Co. v. Anderson, 332 So. 2d 623 (Fla. 4th DCA 1976); Moore v. Sky Realty Inc., 339 So. 2d 299 (Fla. 3d DCA 1976); Commercial Union Ins. Co. v. Estate of Plute, 356 So. 2d 54 (Fla. 4th DCA 1978);…
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Orner v. State, 384 So. 2d 192 (Fla. 2d DCA 1980)…as provided in Section 775.082. Section 775.-082 provides that a person who has been convicted of a felony of the second degree may be punished by a term of imprisonment not to exceed fifteen years. This court’s prior statement in Orner v. State, 370 So. 2d 1201 (Fla. 2d DCA 1979), appears to have been based upon Section 810.02, Florida Statutes (1974). That section provides that burglary, without one of the incidents set forth in the court’s opinion, is a felony in the third degree. The maximum imprisonmen…
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceAuthorities Cited
- Dewberry v. Auto-Owners Ins. Co., 363 So. 2d 1077 (Fla. 1978)
- Gov't Emps. Ins. Co. v. Shelly, 347 So. 2d 124 (Fla. 4th DCA 1977)