Case Name: Floyd Michael KILBREATH, Appellant, v. STATE FARM MUTUAL AUTOMOBILE INSURANCE COMPANY, a Foreign Corporation, Appellee
Court: Florida District Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Florida
Decision Date: 1981-07-01
Citations: 401 So. 2d 846
Docket Number: No. 80-1037
Parties: Floyd Michael KILBREATH, Appellant, v. STATE FARM MUTUAL AUTOMOBILE INSURANCE COMPANY, a Foreign Corporation, Appellee.
Judges: FRANK D. UPCHURCH, Jr., J., concurs.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 401
Pages: 846–848

Head Matter:
Floyd Michael KILBREATH, Appellant, v. STATE FARM MUTUAL AUTOMOBILE INSURANCE COMPANY, a Foreign Corporation, Appellee.
No. 80-1037.
District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fifth District.
July 1, 1981.
Rehearing Denied Aug. 4, 1981.
William H. Roundtree, Cocoa, for appellant.
Thomas G. Kane of Driscoll, Langston, Layton & Kane, Orlando, for appellee.

Opinion:
COWART, Judge.
When an insurance policy requires arbitration of claims and another provision specifies that no action shall lie against the company unless there has been full compliance with all terms of the policy, arbitration or its waiver or denial by the company is a condition precedent to an action on the policy. See Hall v. Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co., 189 So.2d 224 (Fla. 4th DCA 1966); Mike Bradford & Co., Inc. v. Gulf States Steel Co., Inc., 184 So.2d 911 (Fla.3d DCA 1966). A statute of limitations on a contract action does not begin to run until an action can be brought on the contract, Briggs v. Fitzpatrick, 79 So.2d 848 (Fla.1955), and no action can be brought on a contract until all conditions precedent to recovery on the contract have occurred. Gilbert v. American Casualty Co. of Reading, Pennsylvania, 219 So.2d 84 (Fla.3d DCA), cert. denied, 225 So.2d 920 (Fla.1969). Therefore, the statute of limitations on a contract action does not begin to run until all conditions precedent to recovery under the contract have occurred. See Employers' Fire Insurance Co. v. Continental Insurance Co., 326 So.2d 177 (Fla.1976). Consequently, since an action on an insurance policy is a contract action, the statute of limitations on an action on the policy does not begin to run until arbitration has occurred or has been waived or denied by the insurance company.
The order dismissing the complaint as barred by the statute of limitations, as computed from the accident rather than from the denial of arbitration, is
REVERSED and the cause is remanded for further proceedings.
FRANK D. UPCHURCH, Jr., J., concurs.
SHARP, J., dissents with opinion.
. We read Mendlein v. U. S. Fidelity and Guaranty Co., 277 So.2d 538 (Fla.3d DCA 1973), to hold only that where arbitration is required it must be demanded within a reasonable time, a time fixed by analogy to the statute of limitation, and that where Mrs. Mendlein had not demanded arbitration within the five year period of limitations applicable to a cause of action on the policy, she had not acted within a reasonable time.