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301 So. 2d 502

Docket No. T-424.

Dunmore v. Interstate Fire Ins. Co.

Chester L. DUNMORE, Appellant, v. INTERSTATE FIRE INSURANCE COMPANY, a Foreign Corporation, Appellee.

District Court of Appeal of Florida

Decided October 3, 1974.

Rehearing Denied November 4, 1974.

District Court of Appeal of Florida · decided 1974-10-03

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“the statutory language is clear and unambiguous. The insurance company has thirty days in which to verify the claim after receipt of an application for benefits. There is no provision in the statute to toll this time limitation. The burden is clearly upon the insurer to authenticate the claim within the statutory time period. To rule otherwise would render the recently enacted "no fault" insurance statute a "no-pay" plan—a result we are sure was not intended by the legislature.”

quoted by 11 later decisions, including State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co. v. Jones, 774 So. 2d 679 - Ivey v. Allstate Ins. Co.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1974-10-03

How this case has been cited

Cited by 18 later decisions — most recently June 2006

18 state decisions

901974198019902000decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

¶1Robert O. Stripling, Jr., Chandler, O'Neal, Avera, Gray, Lang & Stripling, Gainesville, for appellant.

¶2Richard T. Jones and R. Franklin Ritch, Jones & Ritch, Gainesville, for appellee.

¶3SPECTOR, Acting Chief Judge.

¶4Appellant seeks review of a lower court order denying attorney's fees in his successful suit to recover "no-fault" insurance benefits from appellee.

¶5On October 23, 1972, appellant sustained serious injuries in an automobile accident as a result of which he was hospitalized until December 12, 1972. An application for "no fault" benefits was filed by appellant on January 16, 1973, including an executed authorization for medical information and wage and salary information. Payment of the benefits were not made within thirty days as required by Section 627.736(4)(d) and appellant filed suit. A default judgment was entered but later set aside. Appellee did not contest appellant's entitlement to the $5,000.00 benefits but merely disputed the allowance of attorney's fees.

¶6Section 627.736(4)(b) provides that personal injury protection benefits shall be paid within thirty days of claim. Section 627.736(8) states that "With respect to any dispute under the provisions of §§ 627.730-627.741 between the insured and the insurer, the provisions of § 627.428 shall apply." Section 627.428 provides that upon the rendition of a judgment against an insurer in this state, the court shall award attorney's fees.

¶7It appears to us that the statutory language is clear and unambiguous. The insurance company has thirty days in which to verify the claim after receipt of an application for benefits. There is no provision in the statute to toll this time limitation. The burden is clearly upon the insurer to authenticate the claim within the statutory time period. To rule otherwise would render the recently enacted "no-fault" insurance statute a "no-pay" plan — a result we are sure was not intended by the legislature.

¶8Likewise, the statute is clear that in "any dispute" arising under the "no-fault" *503 statute, §§ 627.730-627.741, Florida Statutes, which proceeds to judgment against an insurer, attorney's fees shall be awarded to the insured, § 627.428, Florida Statutes.

¶9Accordingly, we reverse with instructions to the lower court to award appropriate attorney's fees, including fees for this appellate proceeding.

¶10BOYER and McCORD, JJ., concur.

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