JOHN F. KEEGAN, APPELLANT,
v.
ENNIA GENERAL INSURANCE COMPANY, ETC., APPELLEE
AI-generated. These summaries, headnotes, and key points are machine-generated and may contain errors or omissions. Always verify against the full opinion text below. Not legal advice.
The court held that the trial court correctly determined the appellee had a private right of action against the agent for statutory violation, but a $10,000 error in punitive damages calculation requires correction.
An insurance company intermediary agent was awarded judgment against him for civil theft, fraud, and conversion. The agent supervised an agency that c…
The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence© FLexlaw, Inc. — AI-generated enrichments are proprietary. All rights reserved.
Explore caselaw by topic → Browse Waiver Of Damages cases and more on FLexlaw
[*301] PER CURIAM.
An insurance company intermediary agent seeks reversal of final judgment and new trial of both liability and damages awarded against him for civil theft. Also, the agent seeks reversal and remand on the issue of damages awarded against him on counts for fraud and conversion.
We find that the trial court correctly determined that appellee had a private right of action against appellant for the violation of section 626.561(1), Florida Statutes (1989). That right arose upon the showing that the agent had direct supervision and control over an agency and its employees, and that insurance premiums had been collected by the agency, but not accounted for or turned over to the insurance company for whom the agency was acting. Copeland Ins. Agency v. Home Ins. Co., 502 So. 2d 98 (Fla. 5th DCA 1987).
We do, however, agree with appellant that a $10,000 error in the calculation of punitive damages requires correction. In the final judgment, the trial judge stated that awarding both punitive damages for conversion and treble damages for civil theft would allow double damages of a punitive nature and that appellee had elected the trebling of damages attributable to civil theft, and accordingly, waived punitive damages for conversion. The jury assessed punitive damages of $50,000 under the fraud count and $10,000 under the conversion count. The final judgment reflected the $60,000 total. That judgment for punitive damages must be reduced by $10,000 based upon appellee’s waiver of the punitives for conversion.
All remaining points challenged were not properly preserved for appellate review, and clearly none constitute fundamental error under the circumstances of the instant case.
Accordingly, we order the final judgment corrected as to the $10,000 sum improperly awarded appellee, and we affirm the trial court’s order in all other respects.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Cited By
-
Burr v. Norris, 667 So. 2d 424 (Fla. 2d DCA 1996)…ect remedies before final judgment. Alvarez v. Puleo, 561 So. 2d 437 (Fla. 2d DCA 1990); De Pantosa Saenz v. Rigau & Rigau, P.A., 549 So. 2d 682 (Fla. 2d DCA 1989), review denied, 560 So. 2d 234 (Fla.1990); see also Keegan v. Ennia General Ins. Co., 591 So. 2d 300 (Fla. 3d DCA 1991) (awarding treble damages for civil theft and punitive damages for conversion on same facts would allow double damages of a punitive nature so plaintiff had to elect remedy; cumulative judgment reduced by amount jury found for puni…
-
Cent. Ins. Underwriters, Inc. v. Nat'l Ins. Fin. Co., 599 So. 2d 1371 (Fla. 3d DCA 1992)…is claim, National had to show (1) that Central collected the unearned premiums from the insurance companies, creating the “trust fund,”3 and (2) that Central failed to remit those unearned premiums to National. See Keegan v. Ennia General Ins. Co., 591 So. 2d 300, 301 (Fla. 3d DCA 1991); Copeland Ins. Agency, Inc. v. Home Ins. Co., 502 So. 2d 93, 95 (Fla. 5th DCA 1987). National did not make the necessary showing at trial. National showed that it had sent cancellation notices to Central and had not been repa…
Authorities Cited
- McINTYRE v. State, 502 So. 2d 98 (Fla. 5th DCA 1987)