Volume 13

13 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 972a

Insurance — Personal injury protection — Declaratory judgment — Jurisdiction — Even though count I of complaint was dismissed, amount in controversy remained the same, and county court retained jurisdiction to decide declaratory judgment action — Counsel — Appearance — Where complaint was signed in attorney’s name by attorney’s agent, attorney was of record in case — Insurer’s obligation to provide PIP log on presuit request from assignee/medical provider — Although PIP statute does not require disclosure of PIP log, provider is entitled to information essential to determining status as claimant — Trial court’s failure to consider insurer’s answer and affirmative defense was harmless error where defense relating to reasonableness of charges would have had no impact on issue of provider’s entitlement to documentation

13 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 297a

Insurance — Personal injury protection — Demand letter — PIP log — Postage — Section 627.736(11), which provides for reimbursement of demand letter postage, does not provide for recovery of postage used to send letter demanding copy of PIP payment ledger

13 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 266a

Insurance — Commercial general lines — Coverage — Declaratory action — Insurer’s obligation to indemnify general contractor that contracted to design and build home for damages caused to home by settling due to compression of peat layer under house — If in homeowner’s lawsuit against contractor, contractor proves that damages were result of faulty workmanship by subcontractors in failing to find peat layer under house and remove it or design foundation accordingly, there is coverage under policy unless an exclusion applies — Exclusions — If it is proven in lawsuit that contractor contractually assumed responsibility to design home and foundation and agreed to determine subsurface conditions, policy’s contractual liability exclusion would exclude coverage — However, if contractor is liable to homeowner on some theory other than contractual theory, whether contractor is also liable on contractual theory or not, contractual liability exclusion would not apply — Where policy contains exclusion for damages caused by earth movement, but does not include language specifying that exclusion applies regardless of cause of excluded event, earth movement exclusion applies only to damage caused by natural phenomena and not to movement caused by human activity — Determination of whether settling was caused by natural phenomena or human activity turns, not on whether peat layer was created by human act of piling vegetation from canal dredging or natural event, but on what caused compression of peat layer — Where expert testified that compression was caused by human activity of placing fill, house and pool on lot, earth movement exclusion does not apply — Where there remain genuine issues of fact as to whether subcontractors’ workmanship deficiencies are responsible for damages and whether contractor is liable only on theory of contractual liability, insurer’s motion for summary judgment is denied

13 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 550a

Insurance — Personal injury protection — Rescission — Failure to return premium — Error to grant summary judgment on insurer’s affirmative defense of rescission, finding rescission ineffective for failure to return premium, where insured did not file reply alleging failure to return premium

13 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 259a

Insurance — Automobile liability — Coverage — Non-owned vehicle — Where policy covering liability for injury caused to others by insured’s use of non-owned car defines non-owned car as car not owned, registered or leased by any relative unless at time of accident car had been insured for liability coverage within last 30 days and is driven by an insured who does not own or lease the car, insured was covered under policy for accident that occurred while driving relative’s car for which liability coverage in force at time of accident was voided or rescinded following accident — Under policy exclusions, it is insured state of car at time of accident, not after accident, that determines status as covered non-owned car — Further, if court were to evaluate recission of policy, it would find recission based on alleged misrepresentation on application invalid where application is confusing, vague and ambiguous — Summary judgment granted in favor of insured’s assignee

13 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 1021a

Insurance — Automobile — Venue — Forum non conveniens — Where windshield repair company’s only nexus with county where suit was filed is fact that insurer does business there, and substantially all other aspects of case are elsewhere, motion to transfer venue is granted

13 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 1020b

Insurance — Automobile — Venue — Forum non conveniens — Where windshield repair company’s only nexus with county where suit was filed is fact that insurer does business there, and substantially all other aspects of case are elsewhere, motion to transfer venue is granted

13 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 83a

Insurance — Automobile — Coverage — Declaratory judgment — Where application and policy clearly and unambiguously provide that insured had no coverage for any driver not reported to insurer and approved by insurer in writing, there is no coverage for collision of insured’s truck while unreported employee was driving — Fact that notification procedure outline referenced in policy does not exist and was not given to insured does not negate or change requirement to report and secure approval for all drivers

13 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 889a

Insurance — Automobile — Coverage — Rental car used in business — Where policy unambiguously excluded coverage of any vehicle rented and used in insured’s employment or business, rental vehicle used by insured in door-to-door sales and delivery of educational books was excluded — Further, loss itself was excluded where policy provided that, unless rated for business use, insurance would not apply to claims arising from accidents occurring while insured vehicle was used in course of business, and policy was not rated for business use

13 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 493a

Insurance — Personal injury protection — Discovery — Depositions — Treating physician — Expert witness fee — Treating physician is fact witness not entitled to expert witness fee for appearing at deposition