DENISE K. MORPURGO AND MARION WILLIAMS, APPELLANTS,
v.
GREYHOUND RENT-A-CAR, INC., A CORPORATION, APPELLEE

Fla. 1st DCA | 1976-12-03
No. AA-350
MILLS, J., concurs., SMITH, J., concurring with opinion.
339 So. 2d 718 Florida District Court of Appeal, First District (1976) Caution
Cited by 9 cases

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Synopsis

Greyhound Rent-A-Car rented an automobile to appellants under a contract requiring liability insurance coverage. When an accident involved an uninsured motorist, appellants sought uninsured motorist benefits, discovering Greyhound was a self-insurer that had rejected such coverage without notice. The court held that statutory law permitted rejection of uninsured motorist coverage, making such rejection effective regardless of whether appellants were aware of it.


Holding

The statutory provision permitting rejection of uninsured motorist coverage by an insured named in the policy is equally applicable to self-insurers, making the rejection effective regardless of notice to appellants. Even if Greyhound had procured a liability insurance policy, the waiver of uninsured motorist coverage would have been effective against appellants.


Headnotes

[1] A rental car company that qualifies as a self-insurer under Florida law and properly rejects uninsured motorist coverage is not required to provide such coverage to a ren…

[2] A self-insurer's rejection of uninsured motorist coverage is effective as to a renter of a vehicle, even if the renter assumes the rental company has procured a liability…

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Key Quotes

“the coverage required under this section shall not be applicable where any insured named in the policy shall reject the coverage”

The statutory provision that permits rejection of uninsured motorist coverage, which the court found effective against appellants

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Facts & Procedural History

Marion Williams rented a car from Greyhound under a standard form contract requiring the company to maintain insurance of $100,000/$300,000 for bodily…

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Opinion of the Court
BOYER, Chief Judge.

BOYER, Chief Judge.

Appellants, plaintiffs in the trial court, appeal from a summary final judgment entered in favor of appellee. Essentially, the issue here considered is whether appellee, a rental car company, was required to give notice to appellants that it was a self-insurer and did not intend to provide uninsured motorist coverage.

Examination of the pleadings reveals that appellant Williams rented an automobile from appellee. The standard form contract which appellant Williams signed contained a provision under which appellee was to obtain and maintain insurance on the leased vehicle in the amount of $100,-000/$300,000 for bodily injury/property damage. Unbeknownst to appellants at the time the contract was signed, appellee had qualified as a self-insurer under the Florida Financial Responsibility law, and had executed and filed with the Florida Insurance Commissioner a notice of rejection of uninsured motorist coverage. During the rental term, an accident occurred in which appellant Williams was driving the leased automobile and appellant Morpurgo was a passenger. The driver of the other automobile involved in the accident was an uninsured motorist. Appellants initially sought benefits under the presumed uninsured motorist coverage afforded by the insurance policy which appellant assumed appellee had obtained. Finding that there was no such insurance policy, appellants alleged that appellee breached its contract to provide liability insurance coverage for them and that, if such insurance had been provided, it would have necessarily included the statutorily required uninsured motorist coverage.

The trial court, in its summary final judgment, relied on Kohly v. Royal Indemnity Co., Fla.App.3rd 1966, 190 So. 2d 819, cert. den. Sup.Ct.Fla.1967, 200 So. 2d 813. In that factually similar case, our sister court in determining whether rejection of uninsured vehicle coverage by the defendant deprived the plaintiff of such coverage, construed F.S. 627.0851(1) which required automobile liability insurance policies for the protection of persons insured thereunder, “. . . provided, however, that the coverage required under this section shall not be applicable where any insured named in the policy shall reject the coverage; . ” The court noted, “. However, the law giveth and the law tak-eth away. The first clause of the Statute giveth but the proviso above quoted furnishes a method by which it may be taken away. In the case, sub judice, the ‘insured named in the policy’ rejected the coverage. It therefore did not exist and the plaintiff, when operating the subject vehicle, did not have uninsured vehicle coverage. The problem is one for legislative action, not judicial fiat.” Kohly v. Royal Indemnity Co., at 822.

We believe that the above-quoted language is equally applicable to the instant case. Appellants attempt to distinguish the Kohly case, but we find that said distinctions are not significant. Specifically, appellants point out that in the Kohly case, the rental agency provided the policy of liability insurance which the court construed, whereas in the case sub judice, there is no such liability insurance policy and the primary issue is not whether the insurer breached its insurance policy contract, but whether there was a substantial breach by appellee of its rental agreement and undertaking to provide liability insurance for appellants. However, resolution of that issue is unnecessary because, as noted in the Kohly case, even if appellee had procured a liability insurance policy covering the rental car, the waiver of uninsured motorist coverage would have been effective as to appellants. Moreover, paragraph 11 of the rental agreement clearly provided that appellee would maintain insurance on the rented vehicle in the amounts of $100,000/$300,000 for bodily injury/property damage. There was no specific agreement to provide any other insurance, but only to maintain insur- anee in the stated amount on the rental vehicle, which requirement appellee met by virtue of its status as a self-insurer. Accordingly, the judgment appealed herein is affirmed.

AFFIRMED.

MILLS, J., concurs.

SMITH, J., concurring with opinion.

Concurrence
SMITH, Judge

SMITH, Judge

(concurring):

I agree with appellants that the Kohly decision does not necessarily control this case, for the question there was whether an insurance policy violated Florida statutory law by not giving an insured under the policy, such as the renter of the vehicle in question, an option for uninsured motorist coverage which was made available only to the named insured. The question here is whether Greyhound undertook in the rental contract between the parties to provide uninsured motorist insurance for the benefit of appellants. As the court here has stated, there was no specific agreement to provide such insurance, and the contract does not bear the implication on which appellants rely. I therefore concur in the court’s judgment.

Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

  • Maxwell v. United States Fid. & Guar. Co., 399 So. 2d 1051 (Fla. 1st DCA 1981)
    …t be considered bound by such rejection. Kohly v. Royal Indemnity Co., 190 So. 2d 819 (Fla. 3d DCA 1966), cert. den., 200 So. 2d 813 (Fla.1967); Continental Ins. Co. v. Roth, 388 So. 2d 617 (Fla. 3d DCA 1980); Morpurgo v. Greyhound Rent-A-Car, Inc., 339 So. 2d 718 (Fla. 1st DCA 1976); Mattingly v. Liberty Mut. Ins. Co., 363 So. 2d 147 (Fla. 4th DCA 1978). In Mattingly, the Fourth District Court of Appeal specifically stated that the lessee of an automobile was afforded UM coverage in such amounts selected by…
  • MacKENZIE v. AVIS Rent-A-Car Sys., Inc., 369 So. 2d 647 (Fla. 3d DCA 1979)
    …supra, which hold only that its rejection of UM coverage for itself and its lessees was validly effected and which are therefore entirely irrelevant to the question before us. But its primary reliance is upon Morpurgo v. Greyhound Rent-A-Car, Inc., 339 So. 2d 718 (Fla.1st DCA 1976), in which the court rejected a claim, like the one asserted here, that a car rental company was contractually obliged to provide UM insurance. In Morpurgo, however, the plaintiff relied only upon an alleged implied obligation to t…
  • The Cont'l Ins. Co. v. Roth, 388 So. 2d 617 (Fla. 3d DCA 1980)
    …ninsured vehicle coverage. Kohly v. Royal Indemnity Co., 190 So. 2d 819 (Fla. 3d DCA 1966), cert. denied 200 So. 2d 813 (Fla.1967). Accord, Guardado v. Greyhound Rent-A-Car, Inc., 340 So. 2d 510 (Fla. 3d DCA 1976); Morpurgo v. Greyhound Rent-A-Car, 339 So. 2d 718 (Fla. 1st DCA 1976).1 The only instance which we have uncovered in which the question of a named insured’s authority to reject U/M coverage for another named insured was in the case of Weatherford v. Northwestern Mutual Insurance Co., 239 Cal.App.2…

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