Kory Watson and Lori Conklin (St. Petersburg, FL) (Insurance Coverage) in their representation of Auto-Owners Insurance Company, obtained an Order on February 4, 2022 from the Honorable Keith Meyer denying Plaintiff Granada Insurance Company’s Motion for Final Summary Judgment. The Order denying Plaintiff’s Motion came after extensive briefing and two hearings on the Motion.
Granada Insurance Company brought an action against Afterhours Automotive Group, Anthony Cockroft and Robert G. Gibbons for declaratory relief. Gibbons presented a demand for his injuries to Granada after he was allegedly injured as a result of a motor vehicle accident involving Cockroft. At the time of the accident Granada had a contract of commercial auto insurance with Afterhours, employer of Cockroft.
At the time of the accident, Gibbons was operating a motor vehicle owned by his employer Acree Air Conditioning, Inc. Consequently, Auto-Owners’ interest in the outcome of the Declaratory Action is pursuant to its capacity as the underinsured motorist carrier for Robert Gibbons.
Granada argued that Florida law is clear that an insurance broker is an agent of the insured. Auto-Owners successfully distinguished the facts of those cases from the facts in the underlying matter. In particular, Granada placed heavy reliance on the Florida Supreme Court decision of Almerico v. RLI Ins. Co., 716 So. 2d 774 (1998), for authority that where the written application expressly states an agent has no authority to bind there can be no apparent authority because the applicant is put on notice of the express limitation on the agent’s authority. Additionally, Granada submitted three (3) trial court orders granting Summary Judgment in Granada’s favor on the grounds that the driver at issue was not an approved driver under the policy and therefore Granada had no duty to provide coverage.
Auto-Owners made clear the issue to the Court was not an ambiguity with regard to the “approved driver” provision in the policy, nor in the Request to Bind and Application for Insurance submitted by Rothschild on behalf of Afterhours to Granada. The narrow issue was rather whether a reasonable jury could find that Rothschild was an agent of Granada for the purpose of adding a driver to the commercial automobile policy at issue of which Cockroft’s employer, Afterhours, was a named insured.
Ultimately, the Court found that (1) a reasonable finder of fact could conclude that Rothschild was an apparent agent of Granada for the purpose of servicing the policy to add an approved driver and/or (2) a reasonable fact finder could determine that Rothschild was a statutory agent of Granada based on Fla. § 626.342(2).