US Fidelity & Guaranty Co. v. JD Johnson Co.

438 So. 2d 917, 1983 Fla. App. LEXIS 22411
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedSeptember 29, 1983
DocketAR-224
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 438 So. 2d 917 (US Fidelity & Guaranty Co. v. JD Johnson Co.) 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
US Fidelity & Guaranty Co. v. JD Johnson Co., 438 So. 2d 917, 1983 Fla. App. LEXIS 22411 (Fla. Ct. App. 1983).

Opinion

438 So.2d 917 (1983)

UNITED STATES FIDELITY AND GUARANTY COMPANY, Appellant,
v.
J.D. JOHNSON COMPANY, INC., Appellee.

No. AR-224.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, First District.

September 29, 1983.
Rehearing Denied October 19, 1983.

*918 Donald H. Partington of Clark, Partington, Hart & Johnson, Pensacola, for appellant.

Robert D. Bell of Fisher, Bell, Hahn & Schuster and George Phillips, Pensacola, for appellee.

ZEHMER, Judge.

The issue involved on appeal is whether, as a matter of law, an all-risk casualty insurance policy issued by the appellant, United States Fidelity and Guaranty Company (USF & G) provides coverage for a loss suffered by the appellee, J.D. Johnson Company, Inc. We reverse the lower court's order granting summary judgment in favor of appellee and remand for further proceedings.

Appellee, J.D. Johnson Company, Inc. (Johnson), sells heating and air conditioning equipment at wholesale. Wade Padgett, doing business as Pensacola Heating and Air Conditioning, is in the retail heating and air conditioning business. For the past four or five years, Padgett's firm has purchased equipment from Johnson in accordance with the following credit arrangement. Whenever Padgett's firm needed equipment, one of his employees would go to Johnson's warehouse to pick up the specified equipment. Johnson's warehouse employee would fill out a triplicate invoice and a warranty card on which the equipment's serial number was recorded and would give the equipment to Padgett's employee. One copy of the invoice went to Johnson's front office, one copy would be kept in the warehouse, and the final copy would be given to Padgett's employee. At approximately two-week intervals, Padgett would go to Johnson's warehouse and pay off a portion of the oldest equipment invoices. Padgett never paid off the entire bill.

Mr. Brown, president of J.D. Johnson Company, became concerned about Padgett's indebtedness when he discovered invoices with amounts considerably larger than normal. Brown assembled all of the outstanding invoices charged to Padgett's account and contacted Padgett to come in and settle his account. The total amount of the invoices was approximately $76,000. Padgett testified that neither he nor his company purchased all of the equipment shown on the invoices. Padgett stated that approximately $12,000 of the equipment was purchased by his employees for their moonlighting businesses and was improperly charged to Padgett's account. According to Padgett, the remaining $64,000 worth of equipment was unaccounted for.

After Padgett's refusal to pay the outstanding invoices and his denial that he had purchased most of the equipment, J.D. Johnson Company filed a claim for physical loss of the property with USF & G to recover on an all-risk casualty insurance policy.[1] USF & G refused to pay the claim on the ground that the loss was not covered under the policy provisions. Johnson then filed suit against USF & G and the trial court granted Johnson's motion for summary judgment on liability, finding that the *919 loss was covered under the policy provisions.[2]

This non-final order is appealable by USF & G. Rule 9.130(a)(3)(C)(iv), Fla.R.App.P. USF & G also noticed this appeal from the order denying its motion for summary judgment and contends that we should not only reverse but also direct entry of summary judgment in its favor. The non-final order denying summary judgment is not appealable, however, and its propriety will not be determined on this appeal. Rule 9.130(a)(3), Fla.R.App.P.; Aetna Casualty & Surety Co. v. Meyer, 385 So.2d 10 (Fla. 3d DCA 1980); Vanco Construction, Inc. v. Nucor Corp., 378 So.2d 116 (Fla. 5th DCA 1980).[3]

USF & G sets forth two basic arguments for reversal. First, it points out that the insurance policy at issue does not provide coverage for:

Property sold by the named insured under conditional sale, trust agreement, installment payment or other deferred-payment plan after delivery to customers.

USF & G argues that all of the property at issue was sold to Padgett pursuant to a long-standing credit arrangement; therefore, the failure of Padgett to pay his debt is not a loss covered by the policy. USF & G contends that the facts are undisputed that all of the merchandise which is the subject of this lawsuit was delivered to Padgett or his employees in the ordinary course of Johnson's business.

USF & G's second argument relies upon the policy exclusion for losses caused by:

Voluntary parting with title or possession of any property by the named insured or others to whom the property may be entrusted if induced to do so by any fraudulent scheme, trick, device or false pretense.

USF & G argues that this policy language has been uniformly held valid and is applicable in this case because it is undisputed that all of the property in question was voluntarily delivered by Johnson's employees to Padgett or his employees. USF & G cites specifically to Jacobson v. Aetna Casualty and Surety Company, 233 Minn. 383, 46 N.W.2d 868 (1951), and Outwest Bean, Inc. v. National Fire Insurance Co. of Hartford, 514 P.2d 782 (Col.App.Ct. 1973), as support for its position.

Johnson counters USF & G's first argument by pointing out that the uncontroverted evidence in the record clearly discloses *920 that none of the property in question was sold to Padgett pursuant to an authorized credit arrangement; a small portion of the property was obtained in an unauthorized manner by employees of Padgett for their personal use, and the remainder of the lost property disappeared in an unexplained manner. Accordingly, Johnson argues, the policy exclusion regarding credit transactions is inapplicable.

With respect to USF & G's second argument, Johnson states that in order for there to be a "voluntary parting," there must be an existing contractual relationship between the named insured and the third party receiving physical possession of the property. There was no valid relationship between Johnson and those unauthorized persons receiving possession of the property; therefore, there was no "voluntary parting" with such property. Johnson attempts to distinguish the cases cited by USF & G by pointing out that all such cases involved situations where there was a valid customer relationship between the parties involved.

Johnson specifically relies upon the case of Hootstein & Son, Inc. v. Hartford Fire Insurance Co., 3 Mass. App. 718, 323 N.E.2d 919 (1975). In Hootstein, the plaintiff had placed property on a loading platform so that it could be picked up by a particular trucking contractor; but while the employee in charge of the loading dock had temporarily left his position, an imposter purporting to be from the contractor drove away with the property before signing for it. The court held that under these circumstances there was no voluntary parting with possession of the property by the plaintiff. Similarly, Johnson argues, there was no voluntary parting with possession by Johnson in this case because the property was taken by persons not authorized to receive it.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

St. Paul Fire & Marine Insurance v. Luke Ready Air, LLC
880 F. Supp. 2d 1299 (S.D. Florida, 2012)
Laperla, Ltd. v. Peerless Insurance
980 A.2d 971 (Connecticut Superior Court, 2009)
West Best, Inc. v. Lloyds
655 So. 2d 1213 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1995)
St. Paul Fire & Marine Ins. Co. v. PENSACOLA DIAG. CTR.
505 So. 2d 513 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1987)
Pensacola Diagnostic Center v. St. Paul Fire & Marine Insurance
14 Fla. Supp. 2d 152 (Florida Circuit Courts, 1985)
Great Northern Insurance v. Dayco Corp.
620 F. Supp. 346 (S.D. New York, 1985)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
438 So. 2d 917, 1983 Fla. App. LEXIS 22411, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/us-fidelity-guaranty-co-v-jd-johnson-co-fladistctapp-1983.