Case ID: so2d_578/html/0759-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "\n      PER CURIAM.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

UNITED STATES SCAFFOLD AND LADDER ASSOCIATION, a foreign corporation, Appellant, v. SCAFFOLDS OF FLORIDA, INC., a Florida corporation, Appellee.
    No. 91-201.
    District Court of Appeal of Florida, Third District.
    April 2, 1991.
    Rehearing Denied May 22, 1991.
    Daniel E. Oates, Pompano Beach, Frederic D. Kaufman, Fort Lauderdale, for appellant.
    Mario A. Lamar, Miami, for appellee.
    Before BASKIN, COPE and GERSTEN, JJ.
   PER CURIAM.

United States Scaffold and Ladder Association, defendant below, appeals an adverse final judgment. We reverse.

Appellee Scaffolds of Florida, Inc., plaintiff below, brought suit for damages under subsection 626.901(4), Florida Statutes (1985). At trial plaintiff showed that the now-defunct insurer was not authorized to transact insurance business in Florida. However, the first sentence of subsection 626.901(1), on which plaintiff relies, requires a showing that the insurer was “not then authorized to transact such insurance in this state, or in any other state,....” Id. (emphasis added). We must interpret the statute in accordance with its clear and unambiguous terms. See A.R. Douglass, Inc. v. McRainey, 102 Fla. 1141, 1144, 137 So. 157, 159 (1931). As there was no showing of absence of authority of the insurer to transact insurance business in other states, the final judgment must be reversed and the cause remanded with directions to enter judgment for defendant.

Reversed. 
      
      The phrase "or in any other state” was since deleted by chapter 90-363, section 153, Laws of Florida.