Insurance Journal reports that the Florida Supreme Court has rejected an attempt by seasonal residents to apply more favorable Florida rules to their claims under non-Florida auto insurance policies:
‘Snowbirds” and other part-time Florida residents who insure their cars back home cannot make claims under Florida laws that may be more favorable to them than those in their own states, the state Supreme Court has ruled.
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‘Although Florida welcomes its many visitors, whether for short or extended stays, we cannot rewrite their out-of-state contracts,’ Justice Raoul Cantero wrote for the high court.
The decision will prevent Lake Wales residents Thomas and Margaret Roach, who were injured in 2001 while riding in a neighboring couple’s Indiana-insured car, from suing State Farm for underinsured motorist compensation under Florida law.
Indiana law would prohibit them from recovering because it permits an offset of underinsured motorist coverage against claims paid under other types of coverage. Florida law does not permit offsets.
Interested readers can view the full Opinion [PDF] in State Farm Mutual Ins. Co. v. Roach, Case No. SC04-1313 (Dec. 14, 2006).
