DIANNE LYNN MATTINGLY, APPELLANT,
v.
LIBERTY MUTUAL INSURANCE COMPANY, APPELLEE

Fla. 4th DCA | 1978-09-20
No. 76-1312
CROSS, J., concurs., ANSTEAD, J., dissents with opinion.
363 So. 2d 147 Florida District Court of Appeal, Fourth District (1978) Caution
Cited by 6 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.


Holding

The court should have found that the lessee had the sole privilege to reject uninsured motorist coverage, and since she did not, the policy should be deemed to provide coverage.


Headnotes

[1] Uninsured motorist coverage must be provided in amounts not less than the limits of liability insurance purchased by the named insured, unless lower limits are selected b…

[2] A long-term lessee of a vehicle, who is a named insured or listed on a certificate of a master policy issued to the lessor, has the sole privilege to reject uninsured mot…

Previewing 2 of 4 headnotes on this case. FLexlaw’s editorially structured points of law — every proposition, pinpointed — are reserved for members.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Facts & Procedural History

Dianne Mattingly leased a vehicle and was provided liability insurance by the lessor, Terry, who in turn paid Ford to provide insurance for Terry's le…

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.


Opinion of the Court
MOORE, Judge.

MOORE, Judge.

In this appeal we are called upon to review the provisions of the uninsured motorist statute, Section 627.727(1), Florida Statutes (1975). The appellant Dianne Lynn Mattingly, is seeking reversal of an adverse summary judgment on the issue of the amount of coverage provided to her in a policy issued by the appellee, Liberty Mutual Insurance Company.

The parties agree that there are no factual disputes. Dianne Mattingly leased a motor vehicle from Terry Auto Leasing, Inc. for a term of 34 months. By the terms of the lease liability insurance was provided on the leased vehicle by Terry. The insurance provided was written by Liberty Mutual in a policy issued to Ford Motor Company. Ford leased motor vehicles to Terry who in turn leased the vehicles to members of the public, in this case Dianne Mattingly. No reference to uninsured motorist coverage was contained in the lease between Terry and Mattingly; however, it is undisputed that the terms of the Liberty Mutual policy provide uninsured motorist coverage for Mattingly. The sole question iii this appeal is the amount of such coverage.

The policy in question was first issued to Ford in 1965 and provided liability coverage in the amount of $100,000.00-$300,000.00 and uninsured motorist coverage in the amount of $10,000.00-$20,000.00. From the beginning, Ford’s instructions to Liberty Mutual were to provide uninsured motorist coverage only for those states which require it and in the minimum amounts allowed by law. In essence then, Liberty Mutual was responsible for keeping the policy in compliance with the law of the various states. The liability limits in the policy remained the same.

Pursuant to her interpretation of Section 627.727(1), Dianne Mattingly claimed uninsured motorist coverage equal to the limits of the liability insurance after she had had an accident with an uninsured motorist. In a final declaratory judgment the trial court held that she was entitled to a maximum of $10,000.00 in uninsured motorist coverage under the terms of the insurance policy which covered the automobile she had rented.

Section 627.727(1) reads as follows: “627.727 Automobile liability insurance; uninsured vehicle coverage; insolvent insurer protection.—

(1) No automobile liability insurance covering liability arising out of the ownership, maintenance, or use of any motor vehicle, shall be delivered or issued for delivery in this state with respect to any motor vehicle registered or principally garaged in this state unless coverage is provided therein or supplemental thereto in not less than the limits of the liability insurance purchased by the named insured for bodily injury, or such lower limits complying the company’s rating plan as may be selected by the named insured, under provisions filed with and approved by the department, for the protection of persons insured thereunder who are legally entitled to recover damages from owners or operators of uninsured motor vehicles because of bodily injury, sickness or disease, including death, resulting therefrom; provided, however, that the coverage required under this section shall not be applicable when, or to the extent that, any insured named in the policy shall reject the coverage; and provided further, that when a vehicle is leased for a period of one year or longer and the lessor of such vehicle by the terms of the lease contract provides liability coverage on the leased vehicle in a policy wherein the lessee is a named insured or on a certificate of a master policy issued to the lessor, the lessee of such vehicle shall have the sole privilege to reject uninsured motorist’s coverage.

. ” (Emphasis added).

This statute required uninsured motorist coverage to be provided in an amount equal to, or exceeding, the policy’s limits for personal injury liability unless rejected by any insured named in the policy and then only to the extent of such rejection or in such amount as may have been selected by the named insured. As noted above, the statute also addresses the problem of a long term lessee wherein the lessee is a named insured or named on a certificate of a master policy issued to the lessor, in which case the lessee has the sole privilege of rejecting uninsured motorist coverage. It was thus appellant’s contention that she, and only she, could have rejected the uninsured motorist coverage. Because she did not reject such coverage she was, therefore, entitled to the maximum limits provided for personal injury liability. We disagree.

Appellant was neither a named insured nor was she listed on a certificate of a master policy issued to her lessor. She did not therefore have the legislatively created privilege to reject uninsured motorist coverage. As an additional insured under the policy issued by the appellee, the appellant was afforded uninsured motorist coverage in the amounts selected by appellee, Ford Motor Company, which, as the named insured, was the only party privileged to select coverage in a lesser amount.

Although not directly on point this interpretation of the statute is consistent with the principles set forth in Guardado v. Greyhound Rent-A-Car, Inc., 340 So. 2d 510 (Fla. 3d DCA 1977); Morpurgo v. Greyhound Rent-A-Car, Inc., 339 So. 2d 718 (Fla. 1st DCA 1976), and Kohly v. Royal Indemnity Co., 190 So. 2d 819 (Fla. 3d DCA 1966), cert. den., 200 So. 2d 813 (Fla.1967). “The problem is one for legislative action, not judicial fiat.” Kohly at 822.

Accordingly, the judgment of the trial court is affirmed.

CROSS, J., concurs.

ANSTEAD, J., dissents with opinion.

Dissent
ANSTEAD, Judge,

ANSTEAD, Judge,

dissenting:

Section 627.727(1) provided in part at the time in question:
and provided further, that when a vehicle is leased for a period of one year or longer and the lessor of such vehicle by the terms of the lease contract provides liability coverage on the leased vehicle in a policy wherein the lessee is a named insured or on a certificate of a master policy issued to the lessor, the lessee of such vehicle shall have the sole privilege to reject uninsured motorist’s coverage. I believe that this portion of the statute expresses a clear intent by the legislature, in cases of long term leases of automobiles in which liability coverage is provided to grant the lessee the exclusive right to select the amount, if any, of uninsured motorist coverage. Here, the lessee, Dianne Mat-tingly, had the exclusive right to reject, in whole or in part, the uninsured motorist coverage. She had the sole right to determine the amount of such coverage. But it is undisputed that she was not advised of the options available and she did not reject such coverage in whole or in part. Accordingly, the policy should be deemed as a matter of law to provide coverage in not less than the limits of the liability insurance, in this case $100,000.00-300,000.00.1

The majority states that Mattingly was neither a named insured or on a certificate of a master policy issued to the lessor. How else did Mattingly receive coverage under the policy issued to Ford? By the terms of the lease Terry provided liability insurance to Mattingly. A fee was charged. Terry in turn paid Ford to provide liability insurance for Terry’s lessees. The parties all agree that this coverage was provided to Terry’s lessees, here Mattingly, by the Liberty Mutual master policy. The majority is simply allowing the device of a sub-lease to defeat the clear intent of the legislature.

The majority also relies on the statutory provision that the uninsured motorist coverage may be in:

such lower limits complying with the company’s rating plan as may be selected by the named insured, under provisions filed with and approved by the department, .

And the even further language:

provided, however, that the coverage required under this section shall not be applicable when, or to the extent that, any insured named in the policy shall reject the coverage .

I recognize there is some conflict between these provisions and the later provision regarding leased vehicles. However, I believe the later and clearly expressed provision giving lessees the sole privilege to reject the coverage is controlling. I also believe that this interpretation is in accord with the public policy considerations relied on by the legislature in enacting this statute.

Under the majority holding, the requirement for uninsured motorist coverage on leased vehicles is rendered virtually meaningless since the lessor as either “the named insured” or as “any insured named in the policy”, can reject the coverage notwithstanding the legislature’s grant of the right solely to the lessee. Likewise the purpose of the statute can be defeated by the use of sub-leases as was involved here.

. Lumbermen’s Mutual Casualty Company v. Beaver, 355 So. 2d 441 (Fla. 4th DCA 1978).


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

  • Whitten v. Progressive Cas. Ins. Co., 410 So. 2d 501 (Fla. 1982)
    …ne 16, 1981) (Ervin, J., specially concurring) (employee as additional insured permissive operator of fleet vehicle must be considered bound by rejection of uninsured motorist coverage by insured employer); Mattingly v. Liberty Mutual Insurance Co., 363 So. 2d 147 (Fla. 4th DCA 1978), cert. denied, 370 So. 2d 460 (Fla.1979) (selection of lower amounts by automobile manufacturer as named insured covers lessees of motor vehicles); Glover v. Aetna Insurance Co., 363 So. 2d 12 (Fla. 1st DCA 1978) (rejection of un…
  • Maxwell v. United States Fid. & Guar. Co., 399 So. 2d 1051 (Fla. 1st DCA 1981)
    …90 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 the lessor, “which, as the named insured, was the only party privileged…
  • United States Fid. & Guar. Co. v. Williams, 375 So. 2d 328 (Fla. 1st DCA 1979)
    …coverage under the terms of the policy or under Section 627.727, Florida Statutes (1977). See generally Kohly v. Royal Indemnity Co., 190 So. 2d 819 (Fla. 3d DCA 1966); cert. denied, 200 So. 2d 813 (Fla. 1967); Mattingly v. Liberty Mutual Ins. Co., 363 So. 2d 147 (Fla. 4th DCA 1978). On the second point, however, the manifest weight of the evidence in the record shows that the “named insured,” Beatrice Griffin, was a member of the same household as appellee’s decedent Barbara Young at the time of Young’s de…

Previewing 3 of 6 citing cases — full citator treatment, depth of discussion, and citing context are member features.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Authorities Cited

Full citator, related cases, and AI research tools

Open in FLexlaw