Cannella v. Auto-Owners Ins. Co.

801 So. 2d 94, 26 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 754, 2001 Fla. LEXIS 2273, 2001 WL 1422463
CourtSupreme Court of Florida
DecidedNovember 15, 2001
DocketSC95954
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 801 So. 2d 94 (Cannella v. Auto-Owners Ins. Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cannella v. Auto-Owners Ins. Co., 801 So. 2d 94, 26 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 754, 2001 Fla. LEXIS 2273, 2001 WL 1422463 (Fla. 2001).

Opinion

801 So.2d 94 (2001)

Jeffrey CANNELLA and Joanne Cannella, Petitioners,
v.
AUTO-OWNERS INSURANCE COMPANY, Respondent.

No. SC95954.

Supreme Court of Florida.

November 15, 2001.

*95 Roy C. Skelton, Clearwater, FL, for Petitioners.

A. Wade James, St. Petersburg, FL, for Respondent.

PER CURIAM.

Upon consideration of the petitioners' motion for rehearing, rehearing is granted. The opinion issued in this case on July 13, 2000, is withdrawn, and the following opinion is substituted in its place.

We have for review Auto-Owners Insurance Co. v. Cannella, 737 So.2d 1129 (Fla. 2d DCA 1999), which expressly and directly conflicts with the opinions in Liszka v. Silverado Steak & Seafood Co., 703 So.2d 1226 (Fla. 5th DCA 1998), and Wong v. *96 Gonzalez & Kennedy, Inc., 719 So.2d 937 (Fla. 4th DCA 1998), review dismissed, 743 So.2d 508 (Fla.1999) (case voluntarily dismissed). We have jurisdiction. See art. V, § 3(b)(3), Fla. Const. For the reasons expressed herein, we quash the decision of the Second District below.

Jeffrey and Joanne Cannella (the Cannellas) initiated an action against Mock Plumbing Contractor, Inc. (Mock) seeking the recovery of damages for personal injuries resulting from the negligence of Mock. Mock was insured at the time of the injuries by Auto-Owners Insurance Company (Auto-Owners) under a commercial general liability insurance policy. In the Cannellas' first legal action, service of process was accomplished on June 3, 1992, by personal service upon Monica Mock, who was the only person listed in the state records for Mock, and she was also listed as being the registered agent of Mock. The Cannellas obtained a default against Mock, which, at the time of service of process, had been an administratively dissolved corporation since October 1991. The Cannellas proceeded to trial and a judgment against Mock was entered in June 1995. Thereafter, Mock assigned to the Cannellas all rights it had against Auto-Owners.

The Cannellas then filed this separate legal action against Auto-Owners, alleging in the third count of their complaint that Auto-Owners had breached its policy of insurance by refusing to pay the prior underlying judgment entered in the action against Mock up to the policy limit and that the Cannellas were the third-party beneficiaries of the insurance contract. Auto-Owners denied that it was in breach and filed a motion in its own name in this case to set aside the earlier underlying judgment which had been entered in the prior separate action. Among the grounds alleged in the motion by Auto-Owners were two separate assertions that the judgment had been procured against a dissolved corporation for which service had not been properly perfected and that the judgment was void, voidable, or otherwise unenforceable. The trial court here denied Auto-Owners' motion to set aside the judgment which had been entered in a different case and entered a partial summary judgment against Auto-Owners in this action. Damages were awarded in this action against Auto-Owners up to the limit of its insurance contract. A motion in the name of Mock to set aside the judgment was filed in the separate case in which that judgment had been entered, and it was stricken. This record does not reflect whether such order was ever subject to appellate review.

On appeal, the Second District Court of Appeal reversed the judgment against Auto Owners, relying on Stoeffler v. Castagliola, 629 So.2d 196 (Fla. 2d DCA 1993), and Polk County Rand Investments, Inc. v. State Department of Legal Affairs, 666 So.2d 279 (Fla. 2d DCA 1996). See Auto-Owners, 737 So.2d at 1130. The district court held that, pursuant to section 48.101, Florida Statutes (1991), service of process on a dissolved corporation may only be made on one or more directors of the dissolved corporation as trustee rather than on the corporation's registered agent. Id. Accordingly, the district court declared the judgment entered in the prior action void and reversed and remanded for further proceedings. Id. The Second District recognized conflict with Liszka and Wong. Petitioners sought review in this Court, and we granted review based on conflict with the Fifth District's decision in Liszka and the Fourth District's decision in Wong.

The Cannellas argue, in part, that, under the facts of this case, to continue requiring service of process upon the directors as trustees of a dissolved corporation as the exclusive method of serving a *97 dissolved corporation would be to ignore the legislative intent of the 1989 amendments to chapter 607, Florida Statutes, known as the Florida Business Corporation Act (Corporation Act). Petitioners contend that the 1997 Legislature clarified its intent as to dissolved corporations when it amended section 48.101, Florida Statutes, and that the intent, beginning with the 1989 amendments to the Corporation Act, was to allow service on registered agents of dissolved corporations. Auto-Owners responds that, at the time of the attempted service in this case, section 48.101 expressly required that service of process on a dissolved corporation be made only upon a director as trustee, and there should be no finding of repeal of that provision by implication.

Prior to amendment in 1997, section 48.101, Florida Statutes (1991), provided:

Service on dissolved corporation.— Process against the directors of any corporation which is dissolved as trustees of the dissolved corporation shall be served on one or more of the directors of the dissolved corporation as trustees thereof and binds all of the directors of the dissolved corporation as trustees thereof.

Following the 1997 amendment, section 48.101 now provides:

Service on dissolved corporations.— Process against the directors of any corporation which was dissolved before July 1, 1990, as trustees of the dissolved corporation shall be served on one or more of the directors of the dissolved corporation as trustees thereof and binds all of the directors of the dissolved corporation as trustees thereof. Process against any other dissolved corporation shall be served in accordance with s. 48.081.

§ 48.101, Fla. Stat. (2000).[1]

In reply to this argument, the Cannellas rely upon section 607.1405(2)(g), Florida Statutes (1991), which, at the time of the service in this case, provided that "[d]issolution of a corporation does not ... [t]erminate the authority of the registered agent of the corporation," in urging this Court to adopt the analysis of the Fifth District in Liszka, 703 So.2d at 1228 (interpreting the law after the 1989 revision to the business corporation act as permitting process on a dissolved corporation to be made on the registered agent thereof).[2]See also Wong, 719 So.2d at 938 (agreeing with the Fifth District's analysis in Liszka).[3]*98 However, as the Second District held in Stoeffler, chapter 48, rather than chapter 607, is the Florida statute which expressly mandates the method by which service is to be perfected.

On June 3, 1992, the date of service in this case, section 48.101 contained an express statement that service upon a dissolved corporation was to be upon a director as trustee, but contained no express statement that service could be made upon the corporation's registered agent.

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801 So. 2d 94, 26 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 754, 2001 Fla. LEXIS 2273, 2001 WL 1422463, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cannella-v-auto-owners-ins-co-fla-2001.