2004

29 Fla. L. Weekly D1326a

Administrative law — Securities — Administrative complaints against Florida-licensed life and health insurance agents who sold clients viatical settlement contracts, alleging agents acted as unregistered securities dealers and offered and sold unregistered securities to Florida investors — Viatical settlement purchase agreements at issue met investment contract analysis as adopted by Florida courts — No merit to agents’ argument that regulation of viatical settlement agreements is within exclusive purview of Department of Insurance — Chapter 626, Part X, the Viatical Settlement Act, does not expressly preempt Florida Securities and Investors Protection Act — Because Chapter 517 and Chapter 626 are not positively repugnant to one another, and there is no express preemption, preemption should not be read into statutory scheme — Order requiring agents to cease and desist and to pay fine for each violation, the total of which equaled or exceeded amount of commissions agents had collected for settling VSPA’s, affirmed

29 Fla. L. Weekly D1442a

Insurance — Agents — Negligent misrepresentation — Action against insurance agent alleging that agent negligently misrepresented to insured that her cancellation of supplemental cancer insurance policy would not take effect until end of insurance year, but that cancellation was effective before end of year — Damages — Insurance agent’s liability for negligence leading to the cancellation of an insurance policy cannot exceed the amount of the insurance obtained — Where amount awarded to insured was greater than the maximum benefit she would have been entitled to during the period for which she would have been covered, court erred in denying defendant’s motion for remittitur