AMERICAN FIRE AND CASUALTY COMPANY, APPELLANT,
v.
JOYCE ANN DAWSON, A MINOR, BY HER MOTHER AND FATHER AND NEXT FRIENDS, BARBARA DAWSON, JAMES E. DAWSON, AND BARBARA DAWSON AND JAMES E. DAWSON, INDIVIDUALLY, APPELLEES

Fla. 2d DCA | 1981-07-10
No. 80-2153
SCHEB, C. J., and DANAHY, J., concur.
400 So. 2d 849 Florida District Court of Appeal, Second District (1981) Negative Treatment
Cited by 8 cases

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Synopsis

American Fire and Casualty Company appeals the trial court's order setting aside a 1975 dismissal of the insurer from a uninsured motorist benefits case. The dismissal was based on precedent that such benefits were unavailable for underinsured motorists, but the Florida Supreme Court's decision in Williams v. Hartford subsequently disapproved that precedent, leading the trial court to vacate the dismissal under Rule 1.540(b)(5). The appellate court reversed, holding that disapproval of prior precedent in an unrelated case does not constitute grounds for relief under the rule.


Holding

No. The court held that the trial court erred in granting relief from the final order of dismissal. Disapproval of prior precedent in an unrelated case by the supreme court does not constitute grounds for relief under Rule 1.540(b)(5), as that rule requires either that a prior judgment be 'reversed or otherwise vacated' or that it is 'no longer equitable that the judgment or decree should have prospective application.' The court emphasized that Florida law restricts relief to the specific exceptions enumerated in the rule, unlike the broader federal counterpart.


Headnotes

[1] A Florida court's power to grant relief from a final order under Rule 1.540(b) is restricted to the specific grounds enumerated in the rule, unlike the broader equitable…

[2] A prior judgment is not "reversed or otherwise vacated" for purposes of Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.540(b)(5) when a higher court "disapproves" the reasoning of tha…

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Key Quotes

“a Florida order is entitled to finality unless it falls strictly under one of the exceptions set forth in the rule”

Establishes the core principle that Florida Rule 1.540(b) provides only limited grounds for relief from final judgments, unlike the broader federal counterpart.

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Facts & Procedural History

American Fire and Casualty Company was dismissed from a suit by Joyce Ann Dawson (a minor) seeking uninsured motorist benefits in 1975, based on then-…

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Opinion of the Court
HOBSON, Judge.

HOBSON, Judge.

Appellant American Fire and Casualty Company appeals on interlocutory, post-decretal order granting appellee’s motion for relief from final order pursuant to Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.540(b)(5) and setting aside an order of dismissal as to American Fire and Casualty Company dated November 5, 1975. We reverse.

The facts of this appeal are simple. Before our supreme court handed down its opinion in Williams v. Hartford Accident & Indemnity Co., 382 So. 2d 1216 (Fla.1980), several decisions from the district courts of appeal had held that uninsured motorist benefits were available only where the tortfeasor was uninsured and not merely unde-rinsured. We so held in this case several years ago. American Fire & Casualty Co. v. Dawson, 320 So. 2d 38 (Fla.2d DCA 1975). Accordingly, we ordered the trial court to dismiss appellant from this action, which it did in 1975.

Williams “disapproved” the earlier cases, including our opinion in this case. Appellee promptly moved the trial court, under Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.540(b)(5), to set aside its 1975 order, thus exhuming and rekindling the case against appellant.1 Initially, the trial court denied appellees’ motion, but after rehearing entered an order granting the motion. That order had the effect of vacating and setting aside the final order of dismissal as to American Fire and Casualty Company.

In paragraph 8 of the subject order, the trial court stated that rule 1.540(b) “gives the court a grand reservoir of equitable power to do justice in a particular case, Pierce v. Cook and Company, 518 F. 2d 720 (10th Cir. 1975), (discussing the federal counterpart Rule 60[b]).” Again, in paragraph 14, the trial court referred to the case of Pierce v. Cook and stated that that case was an “analogous situation under Rule 60[b], Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, the counterpart of Florida’s 1.540(b).”

While it is true that Federal Rule 60[b] is substantially the same as Florida Rule 1.540(b), the federal rule provides an additional ground in subsection (b)(6) for “any other reason justifying relief from the operation of a judgment.” This subsection bestows upon the federal courts a much broader base upon which to grant relief. The Florida rule restricts the state courts to those reasons and circumstances set forth in the rule. In other words, a Florida order is entitled to finality unless it falls strictly under one of the exceptions set forth in the rule.

For the reasons stated, we hold that the trial court erred in granting appellees’ motion for relief from final order. REVERSED.

SCHEB, C. J., and DANAHY, J., concur. . Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.540(b)(5) provides that the court may relieve a party from a final judgment where “a prior judgment or decree upon which it is based has been reversed or otherwise vacated or it is no longer equitable that the judgment or decree should have prospective application.”

As a matter of semantics, an appellate court decision is “disapproved” when the supreme court decides a completely unrelated case and finds that the precedents on which that case was argued are incorrect. When the supreme court “disapproved” our opinion in American Fire & Casualty Co. v. Dawson, it did so in a case with which the present parties were not involved. Thus, the prior judgment was not “reversed or otherwise vacated,” as required in subsection (b)(5). Moreover, our prior opinion did not have “prospective application” in order to bring it within the last exception to subsection (b)(5).


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Citator

Cited By

  • In re Guardianship of Theresa Marie Schiavo v. Schiavo, 792 So. 2d 551 (Fla. 2d DCA 2001)
    …ring merits of trial and rejected them); Curtiss-Wright Corp. v. Diaz, 507 So. 2d 1197 (Fla. 3d DCA 1987) (holding that money judgments do not have "prospective application” necessary to invoke relief under this rule); Am. Fire & Cas. Co. v. Dawson, 400 So. 2d 849 (Fla. 2d DCA 1981) (same); Pollock v. T & M Invs., Inc., 420 So. 2d 99 (Fla. 3d DCA 1982) (affirming denial of rule 1.540 motion; although rule 1.540 is to be liberally construed to effect relief from an unjust judgment, this relief is available onl…
  • Molinos DEL S.A. v. E.I. Dupont de Nemours & Co., 947 So. 2d 521 (Fla. 4th DCA 2006)
    …See Bane v. Bane, 775 So. 2d 938, 941 (Fla.2000); see also Abram v. Wolicki, 864 So. 2d 18, 20 (Fla. 4th DCA 2003) (stating that rule 1.540(b) provides relief from judgment only “under a limited set of circumstances”); Am. Fire & Cas. Co. v. Dawson, 400 So. 2d 849, 849 n. 1 (Fla. 2d DCA 1981) (holding that an order is final unless it falls strictly under an exception in 1.540(b)). Like its counterpart, Federal Rule 60,1 Rule 1.540(b) allows a court “to strike the proper balance between two often conflicting p…
  • Shiloh Toler and Troy Toler v. Bank OF Am., 78 So. 3d 699 (Fla. 4th DCA 2012)
    …1, 524 (Fla. 4th DCA 2006) (“As an exception to the rule of finality, Rule 1.540(b) gives the trial court jurisdiction to relieve a party from a final judgment in a narrow range of circumstances.” (citations omitted)); Am. Fire & Cas. Co. v. Dawson, 400 So. 2d 849, 850 (Fla. 2d DCA 1981) (comparing the federal equivalent of the rule, which has a catchall that broadens a federal court’s ability to grant relief, to Florida’s, which “restricts the state courts to those reasons and circumstances set forth in the…

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