ROBERT VERNON BOOKMAN, APPELLANT,
v.
KAH INCORPORATED, INC., AS THE SUCCESSOR IN INTEREST TO MERIDIAN INVESTMENTS, INC., AND HUDSON GROUP ADMINISTRATORS, INC., APPELLEES

Fla. 1st DCA | 1993-02-19
No. 92-1134
ALLEN and WOLF, JJ., concur.
614 So. 2d 1180 Florida District Court of Appeal, First District (1993) Caution
Cited by 15 cases

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.

Synopsis

Bookman, a Virginia resident who moved to Florida, sued his former employer's health insurance administrator for unpaid medical expenses, claiming Florida jurisdiction under the long-arm statute and the Unauthorized Insurers Process Law (UIPL). The court affirmed dismissal for lack of personal jurisdiction, holding that neither statute could extend Florida's jurisdiction beyond constitutional due process limits when the defendants had no purposeful contacts with Florida.


Holding

The court held that neither the long-arm statute nor the UIPL can extend Florida's in personam jurisdiction beyond constitutional due process limits. Due process requires that defendants have minimum contacts with Florida resulting from purposeful conduct; here, the defendants' contacts were compelled by COBRA and the insured's unilateral relocation, not deliberate business activity in Florida, so jurisdiction violates due process.


Headnotes

[1] Due process requires that a Florida court must have personal jurisdiction over a non-resident defendant, which necessitates minimum contacts with Florida such that mainta…

[2] For a Florida court to exercise personal jurisdiction over a non-resident defendant, the defendant must have purposefully availed themselves of the privilege of conductin…

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Key Quotes

“due process precludes the exercise of in personam jurisdiction over appellees by a Florida court because their contacts with Florida were not the result of purposeful conduct”

Establishes the core holding that purposeful conduct is essential to establish jurisdiction under due process

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Facts & Procedural History

Bookman was employed in Virginia by Hallmark Acura, a subsidiary of Meridian Investments, Inc., which provided him a health benefit plan administered …

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Opinion of the Court
SMITH, Judge.

SMITH, Judge.

Bookman appeals final orders dismissing his second amended complaint against appellees for lack of personal jurisdiction. We agree with the well-reasoned opinion of the trial judge that due process precludes the exercise of in personam jurisdiction over appellees by a Florida court because their contacts with Florida were not the result of purposeful conduct.

The undisputed facts in this case are set forth in the trial court’s order and are quoted below:

Until early November 1988, Third-Party Plaintiff, BOOKMAN, was employed in Virginia by Hallmark Acura, a subsidiary of MERIDIAN INVESTMENTS, INC., whose home office is in Virginia. Neither MERIDIAN nor Hallmark has offices in Florida, maintains employees in Florida, or solicits business in Florida. MERIDIAN provided its Virginia employees with a health benefit plan that was administered by HUDSON GROUP ADMINISTRATORS, INC., whose home office is in Virginia. HUDSON does not maintain any offices in Florida, nor is it authorized to conduct business in Florida.

Third-Party Defendant, BOOKMAN, retired from his employment with MERIDIAN on or about November 4,1988. The [Consolidated] Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) required employer MERIDIAN to provide retiree BOOK-MAN with continuing health care coverage for a period of time should retiree BOOKMAN so elect. In an application, BOOKMAN’S residence is listed as Virginia. Subsequent to his retirement, BOOKMAN moved to Florida and incurred medical expenses at the HCA North Florida Medical Center. HUDSON paid for some of these medical expenses, but denied others. HCA North Florida Medical Center obtained a judgment against BOOKMAN for the unpaid medical expenses. BOOKMAN is now seeking a judgment against MERIDIAN, HUDSON and KAH, INCORPORATED, as the successor in interest to MERIDIAN, for these same medical expenses.

Bookman has advanced two statutory bases for jurisdiction: (1) Florida’s long-arm statute, section 48.193(l)(d), (g), Florida Statutes; and (2) the Unauthorized Insurer’s Process Law (UIPL), sections 626.-905 and 626.906, Florida Statutes.

The trial court agreed that Bookman’s third-party complaint sufficiently alleged jurisdictional facts bringing the action within Florida’s long-arm statute.

However, the trial court found that the long-arm statute could not expand the reach of Florida’s in personam jurisdiction beyond the constitutional limits of due process. He concluded that to subject appellees to Florida jurisdiction would violate due process because appellees’ insurance relationship with Bookman in Florida was compelled by COBRA and Book-man’s unilateral election to move to Florida, and appellees had not purposefully availed themselves of the privilege of conducting activities in Florida. This conclusion of the trial court is supported by the facts and case law, both federal and state. World-Wide Volkswagen Corp. v. Woodson, 444 U.S. 286, 100 S.Ct. 559, 62 L.Ed.2d 490 (1980); Hanson v. Denckla, 357 U.S. 235, 78 S.Ct. 1228, 2 L.Ed.2d 1283 (1958); International Shoe Co. v. Washington, 326 U.S. 310, 66 S.Ct. 154, 90 L.Ed. 95 (1945); Venetian Salami Co. v. Parthenais, 554 So. 2d 499 (Fla.1989); Alexander & Alexander of the Carolinas, Inc. v. Northwest Oxygen, Inc., 541 So. 2d 1238 (Fla. 2d DCA 1989); and American Community Mutual Insurance Co. v. Naples Research and Counseling Center, Inc., 534 So. 2d 836 (Fla. 2d DCA 1988).

According to this established case law, due process requires that in order to subject nonresident defendants to in per-sonam jurisdiction in Florida, the defendants must have certain minimum contacts with Florida such that the maintenance of the suit does not offend traditional notions of fair play and substantial justice. It is essential that there be some act by which the defendants purposefully avail themselves of the privilege of conducting activities in Florida, thus reaping the benefit and protection of its laws. Bookman cannot establish the necessary minimum contacts with Florida through his own unilateral activities.

Nevertheless, Bookman contends that in personam jurisdiction in this case can be predicated upon section 626.906, despite the fact that the statute only applies to policies held by Florida residents which are issued and delivered to them in Florida,1 because appellees renewed Bookman’s insurance policy after he moved to Florida.

First of Georgia Ins. Co. v. Lloyd, 557 So. 2d 138 (Fla. 3d DCA 1990) (increasing coverage and collecting premium for additional coverage after insured, with knowledge of insurer, became Florida resident was sufficient to establish jurisdiction, and authorize service under UIPL) and Citizens Ins. Co. of America v. Bowman, 525 So. 2d 991 (Fla. 3d DCA 1988) (nonresident corporation subject to Florida jurisdiction when the company renewed insurance policy after learning that insured moved to Florida).

As support for this contention, Bookman states that after he moved to Florida he received a letter from someone in benefits administration on May 17, 1989 advising him of an increase in premium rates effective July 1, 1989. Bookman alleges that he paid these increased premiums. Bookman states that he sent his premium payments from Florida, using a Florida bank account.

The UIPL was enacted in order to subject certain insurers, not authorized to do business in this state, to Florida jurisdiction in suits by or on behalf of insureds or beneficiaries under insurance contracts issued or delivered in this state. The doing of any one of certain acts by the unauthorized insurer, which are enumerated in section 626.906, constitutes the appointment by the insurer of the Insurance Commissioner of Florida as its agent for service of process in any action arising out of the insurance contract.

Before addressing the merits of Bookman’s argument, it is necessary to resolve the question whether the,UIPL affords a basis for in personam jurisdiction independent of the due process requirements set forth in the cases cited above. We hold that it does not, and that the UIPL, like the Florida long-arm statute, cannot expand the reach of in personam jurisdiction beyond the constitutional limits of due process.

In Parmalee v. Iowa State Traveling Men’s Ass’n, 206 F. 2d 518 (5th Cir.1953), cert. denied, 346 U.S. 877, 98 L.Ed. 384, 74 S.Ct. 125, 44 A.L.R.2d 410, the beneficiary of a life insurance policy brought an action for death benefits against an unauthorized insurer, and the insurer resisted jurisdiction on due process grounds, contending it was not doing business in Florida. The insurer was domiciled in Iowa, and from there operated an insurance business by mail, in the process of which it issued and delivered an insurance contract to the deceased, a Florida resident. Analyzing sections 625.28-625.33, Florida Statutes, (later sections 626.904-626.912) renumbered to the court upheld the constitutionality of the UIPL, finding that it did not offend traditional notions of fair play and substantial justice, and that the minimum contacts which the legislature recognized in the UIPL, from which result the creation and continuance in existence of an insurance contract until it becomes a potential claim, were sufficient to subject the unauthorized insurer to suit upon the insurance contract.

We find Parmalee to be particularly instructive as the court implicitly recognized in deciding the case that the UIPL, as well as the facts of each case brought under the statute, must pass constitutional muster in order to permit the acquisition of in per-sonam jurisdiction over nonresident defendants. In short, due process considerations apply to the UIPL.

Due process requires that in looking at the existence of minimum contacts, which are built into section 626.906, Florida Statutes, an evaluation be made whether these contacts were the result of deliberate and purposeful action on the part of the insurer, or whether these contacts were compelled by unilateral actions of the insured or were created by circumstances over which the insurer had no control.

Returning to the argument advanced by Bookman, that the letter of May 17, 1989 constituted a renewal of the insurance contract in Florida,2 we hold that even if the extension could be construed as constituting a renewal synonymous with the issuance of a policy in Florida, appellees cannot be subjected to in personam jurisdiction because they did not purposefully avail themselves of the opportunity to do business in Florida, since even this offer of extension was compelled by COBRA. This lack of purposeful availment distinguishes this case from McGee v. International Life Ins. Co., 355 U.S. 220, 78 S.Ct. 199, 2 L.Ed.2d 223 (1957), upon which Bookman also relies, because in that case, the Texas life insurance company voluntarily offered to reinsure the California resident. Purposeful availment was present in McGee where it is not present in this case.

AFFIRMED.

ALLEN and WOLF, JJ., concur. . Parliament Life Ins. Co. v. Eglin Nat'l Bank, 333 So. 2d 517 (Fla. 1st DCA 1976); see also Parmalee v. Commercial Travelers Mut. Acc. Ass’n of America, 206 F. 2d 523 (5th Cir.1953).

. Bookman has not cited any case holding that a letter, similar in nature and effect constitutes a renewal.


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Citator

Cited By

  • Borden v. East-European Ins. Co., 921 So. 2d 587 (Fla. 2006)
    …198, 1203 (11th Cir.1999). The court noted that “[t]he statute lists a number of acts which may subject an unauthorized insurer to the jurisdiction of the Florida courts by allowing substituted service of process.” Id.; see also Bookman v. KAH Inc., 614 So. 2d 1180, 1182 (Fla. 1st DCA 1993) (noting that the UIPL was enacted to subject certain insurers not authorized to do business in this state to Florida jurisdiction, and that the insurer’s doing of an act enumerated in section 626.906 authorizes service of p…
  • …appeals. Hassneh is not subject to service of process pursuant to section 626.906, which applies only to insurers that issue policies “held by Florida residents which are issued and delivered to them in Florida.” Bookman v. KAH Incorporated, Inc., 614 So. 2d 1180, 1182 (Fla. 1st DCA1993) (citations omitted). See also Parliament Life Ins. Co. v. Elgin Nat’l Bank, 333 So. 2d 517, 518 (Fla. 1st DCA1976) (to be subject to service pursuant to section 626.906, insurer must issue and deliver contract in Florida; fa…
  • …relies on several cases wherein the courts of this state determined that no personal jurisdiction existed over a foreign insurance carrier. We conclude that these cases are distinguishable from the instant case. In Bookman v. KAH Incorporated, Inc., 614 So. 2d 1180 (Fla. 1st DCA 1993), a health care provider obtained a judgment against the insured, who then sued the insurance company in Florida for payment of the medical expenses incurred. The insured, a Virginia resident, unilaterally sought treatment in Flor…

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