Castle Beach Club Condominium, Inc. v. Citizens Property Insurance Corp.

96 So. 3d 964, 2012 Fla. App. LEXIS 12354, 2012 WL 3101528
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedAugust 1, 2012
DocketNo. 3D11-160
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 96 So. 3d 964 (Castle Beach Club Condominium, Inc. v. Citizens Property Insurance Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Castle Beach Club Condominium, Inc. v. Citizens Property Insurance Corp., 96 So. 3d 964, 2012 Fla. App. LEXIS 12354, 2012 WL 3101528 (Fla. Ct. App. 2012).

Opinion

ROTHENBERG, J.

This is a non-final appeal of the trial court’s order transferring venue from Miami-Dade County to Leon County. Castle Beach Club Condominium, Inc. (“Castle Beach”) sued Citizens Property Insurance Corp. (“Citizens”), a state entity, for breach of contract and an appraisal in Miami-Dade Circuit Court. The trial court transferred the case to Leon County based upon Citizens’ assertion of Florida’s common law home venue privilege. We affirm the trial court’s order because: (1) Citizens is a state entity protected by the home venue privilege; (2) Castle Beach concedes that no exception to the home venue privilege applies; and (3) Citizens did not waive the privilege.

In this case, the trial court’s venue determination was decided as an issue of law, and thus, our standard of review is de novo. Dep’t of Transp. v. City of Miami, 20 So.3d 908, 910 (Fla. 3d DCA 2009). Citizens did not answer the complaint, but moved to transfer venue. The trial court granted Citizens’ motion to transfer venue to its home venue of Leon County, citing the common law home venue privilege that applies to state entities.

Under Florida common law, the state and its agencies or subdivisions enjoy the home venue privilege. “The home venue privilege provides that, absent waiver or exception, venue in a suit against the State, or an agency or subdivision of the State, is proper only in the county in which the State, or the agency or subdivision of the State, maintains its principal headquarters.” Fla. Dep’t of Children & Fami[966]*966lies v. Sun-Sentinel, Inc., 865 So.2d 1278, 1286 (Fla.2004). A trial court is required to honor an agency’s use of the privilege unless: (1) it is inapplicable, based upon an exception recognized by the Florida Supreme Court or by statute; or (2) it has been waived. Id. at 1287-88; see also Bd. of Trs. of the Internal Improvement Trust Fund v. Harvey W. Seeds Post No. 29, 948 So.2d 799, 800 (Fla. 3d DCA 2006) (“[I]t is an immutable principle that, under Florida’s home venue privilege, a state agency ... may be sued only at its headquarters ... unless one of the recognized exceptions to that rule applies.”).

Castle Beach concedes that no exception to the privilege applies here, but contends that: (1) based on the language in the enabling statute, the Legislature did not intend for the home venue privilege to apply to Citizens; (2) because Citizens is a state “entity,” not a state agency or a subdivision of the state, it does not enjoy the home venue privilege; and (3) Citizens waived the privilege by choosing to litigate other cases outside Leon County, including in Miami-Dade County.

As a state entity, Citizens presumptively holds the privileye

State entities presumptively hold the home venue privilege. See Carlile v. Game & Fresh Water Fish Comm’n, 354 So.2d 362, 363-64 (Fla.1977). Therefore, Castle Beach bears the burden of demonstrating that Citizens, which is “a government entity that is an integral part of the state, and that is not a private insurance company,” § 627.351(6)(a)l., Fla. Stat. (2010), does not enjoy this protection.

Castle Beach has not met that burden. First, we note that Citizens’ enabling statute does not specifically express the Legislature’s intent to eliminate Citizens’ home venue privilege, which is available to all state entities under Florida’s common law, and Florida law disfavors abrogating a common law privilege by implication. Bush v. State, 945 So.2d 1207, 1213 n. 10 (Fla.2006); Thornber v. City of Fort Walton Beach, 568 So.2d 914, 918 (Fla.1990); Peninsular Supply Co. v. C.B. Day Realty of Fla., Inc., 423 So.2d 500, 502 (Fla. 3d DCA 1982). Thus, Castle Beach must demonstrate that the language the Legislature chose in Citizens’ enabling statute clearly reflects its intent to affect the privilege even though the privilege is not specifically referenced.

Castle Beach suggests that the Legislature’s mandate in section 627.351(6)(a)l., that Citizens “providfe] service to policyholders, applicants, and agents which is no less than the quality generally provided in the voluntary market,” by implication, abrogates the privilege because private insurers working in the “voluntary market” do not possess the privilege. However, under Florida law, “[ujnless a statute unequivocally states that it changes the common law, or is so repugnant to the common law that the two cannot coexist, the statute will not be held to have changed the common law.” Thom-ber, 568 So.2d at 918. The language cited by Castle Beach is, however, neither repugnant to the common law privilege, because it relates to overall customer service but does not address procedure in lawsuits, nor unequivocal regarding elimination of the privilege, because it does not address venue or the privilege. We, therefore, reject Castle Beach’s argument.1

[967]*967 The Legislature intended that Citizens be protected by the home venue privilege

Based on the plain and unambiguous language of Citizens’ enabling statute, section 627.351(6)(a)l., and our review of the case law, we conclude that the Legislature intended that Citizens be protected by the home venue privilege. In 2007, the Legislature amended Citizens’ enabling statute, specifically declaring that Citizens is “a government entity that is an integral part of the state, ... not a private insurance company,” created to provide affordable property insurance in this state. § 627.351(6)(a)l. The enabling statute further provides:

Because it is essential for this government entity to have the maximum financial resources to pay claims following a catastrophic hurricane, it is the intent of the Legislature that Citizens Property Insurance Corporation continue to be an integral part of the state and that the income of the corporation be exempt from federal income taxation....

Id.

Castle Beach contends that although Citizens is a state or governmental “entity,” it is not entitled to invoke the home venue privilege because it is not an “agency or subdivision of the state.” See Citizens Prop. Ins. Corp. v. Admiralty House, Inc., 66 So.3d 342, 345 (Fla. 2d DCA 2011) (finding that “Citizens qualifies as a public body”); Citizens Prop. Ins. Corp. v. Ashe, 50 So.3d 645, 647 (Fla. 1st DCA 2010) (stating that “Citizens is a governmental entity”); Citizens Prop. Ins. Corp. v. Garfinkel, 25 So.3d 62, 66 (Fla. 5th DCA 2009) (holding that “the Legislature created Citizens as a state entity”). This Court, however, has found that governmental “entities,” under certain cireum-stances, are entitled to the home venue privilege. Two such examples are Boca Raton Housing Authority v. Carousel Development, Inc., 482 So.2d 543, 545 (Fla. 3d DCA 1986), wherein this Court held that Boca Raton Housing Authority was a governmental entity entitled to the home venue privilege, and Ven-Fuel v. Jacksonville Electric Authority, 332 So.2d 81, 82 (Fla. 3d DCA 1975),. wherein this Court concluded that Jacksonville Electric Authority was a governmental entity entitled to the home venue privilege.

In Boca Raton Housing Authority,

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Bluebook (online)
96 So. 3d 964, 2012 Fla. App. LEXIS 12354, 2012 WL 3101528, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/castle-beach-club-condominium-inc-v-citizens-property-insurance-corp-fladistctapp-2012.