NATIONAL SURETY CORPORATION, APPELLANT,
v.
WHITE CONSTRUCTION COMPANY, INCORPORATED, A CORPORATION, RICHARD SANBORN BLAKE INDIVIDUALLY; RICHARD SANBORN BLAKE, AS ADMINISTRATOR OF THE ESTATE OF HOWARD SANBORN BLAKE, A MINOR, DECEASED, DAVID LEE BLAKE, A MINOR, BY HIS FATHER AND NEXT FRIEND, RICHARD SANBORN BLAKE, SANDRA JEAN BLAKE, A MINOR, BY HER FATHER AND NEXT FRIEND, RICHARD SANBORN BLAKE, JIMMY WALTER RAMPLEY, DECEASED, AND WILLIAM THOMAS BRYANT, INDIVIDUALLY, APPELLEES
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The court held that the timeliness of notice is a factual question not suitable for a declaratory judgment action.
An insured construction company failed to provide timely notice of an accident to its insurance carrier. The carrier filed a complaint for declaratory…
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This is an appeal from an order of the Circuit Court of Duval County, dismissing with prejudice plaintiff’s second Amended Complaint for Declaratory Decree.
Appellant was the insurance carrier for the appellee-White Construction Company, Incorporated, under a policy that provided inter alia, for notice of an accident be given as soon as practicable. An accident occurred between two motorists on a piece of highway which was under repair or construction by White Construction Company. None of White’s vehicles were involved in the accident. No notice of the accident was given by appellee until suit was filed against appellee by parties involved in the accident. Notice was then immediately given by appellee-White to appellant. Thereupon, appellant filed its complaint for declaratory decree, praying the court to construe its rights, obligations and liabilities in the light of the facts alleged, but complaining primarily that the notice of the accident was not timely given.
This court had before it a similar question in the case of Johnson v. Travelers Indemnity Company,1 which involved the question of whether notice was timely given. This court determined and so held, in said case, that question of sufficiency of the notice was a factual question and was not within the purview of our Declaratory Judgment Statute being F.S.1963, Chapter 87, F.S.A. Certiorari was denied by the Florida Supreme Court.
This case presents, in our opinion, and we so hold, a factual situation, also, and therefore, under the authority of Johnson v. Travelers Indemnity Company, supra, the order appealed from is hereby Affirmed.
CARROLL, DONALD K., Acting Chief Judge, and RAWLS, J., concur.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
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Cited By
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NEW Amsterdam Cas. Co. v. Intercity Supply Corp., 212 So. 2d 110 (Fla. 4th DCA 1968)…harged the writ. Travelers Indemnity Co. v. Johnson, Fla. 1967, 201 So. 2d 705. The Supreme Court reaffirmed its decision in Columbia Casualty Co. v. Zimmerman, supra. See also National Surety Corporation v. White Construction Company, Fla.App.1968, 206 So. 2d 220. The real question that the insurance company actually seeks to have a determination of is purely a factual one; namely, did the conduct or claimed acts of the defendant, Intercity Supply Corp., meet or not meet the requirements of the assistance a…
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