Case Name: Turner HODGES, Petitioner, v. NATIONAL UNION INDEMNITY COMPANY, a Pennsylvania corporation, Respondent
Court: Florida Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Florida
Decision Date: 1971-05-26
Citations: 249 So. 2d 679
Docket Number: No. 40190
Parties: Turner HODGES, Petitioner, v. NATIONAL UNION INDEMNITY COMPANY, a Pennsylvania corporation, Respondent.
Judges: CARLTON, ADKINS and McCAIN, JJ., concur.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 249
Pages: 679–683

Head Matter:
Turner HODGES, Petitioner, v. NATIONAL UNION INDEMNITY COMPANY, a Pennsylvania corporation, Respondent.
No. 40190.
Supreme Court of Florida.
May 26, 1971.
Rehearing Denied July 12, 1971.
Alan R. Schwartz of Horton & Schwartz and Welsh & Cornell, Miami, for petitioner.
John W. Thornton, of Stephens, Magill & Thompson, Miami, for respondent.

Opinion:
ERVIN, Justice.
This is a conflict certiorari review of the decision in National Union Indemnity Corp. v. Turner Hodges, DCA 3d, 238 So. 2d 673. There, it was held an exclusion in Petitioner Hodges' auto liability policy containing uninsured motorist coverage issued to him by National Union covering his 1964 Buick passenger automobile precluded his recovering from National Union the sum of $4,000 for bodily injury sustained because of the negligence of an uninsured motorist who collided with Hodges while he was driving his "El Camino" 1967 Chevrolet truck.
Hodges' auto liability policy, to which was coupled the uninsured motorist coverage as provided by Sections 627.0851 and 324.021(7), Florida Statutes, F.S.A., contained the related exclusion from uninsured motorist coverage as follows:
" to bodily injury to an insured while occupying an automobile (other than an insured automobile) owned by the named insured or a relative (Emphasis added.)
One of the questions presented to the District Court was whether the El Camino was an automobile under the policy definitions and intendments. The District Court agreed that it was and reversed the Circuit Judge. 238 So.2d, text 675.
We conclude the District Court was in error and that its decision directly conflicts jurisdictionally with other appellate decisions, as will hereinafter appear. There was sufficient uncertainty and ambiguity as to whether the El Camino was a truck or an automobile within the terms of the policy for the question to be resolved against the insurer. All ambiguities and uncertainties are to be resolved in favor of the insured and against the company; e. g., 18 Fla.Jur., Insurance, § 94, pp. 86-88; Hartnett v. Southern Insurance Co., Fla., 181 So.2d 524; Da Costa v. General Guaranty Ins. Co., Fla.l969, 226 So.2d 104. Moreover, it has been repeatedly held that the legislative policy of F.S. Section 627.-0851, F.S.A., is to provide full statutory uninsured motorist family protection for Florida motorists, unless rejected by the named insured, and to that end any limitations and exclusions of the coverage inserted in the policy by insurer have either been invalidated as contrary to statutory policy or strictly construed against insurer. Zeagler v. Commercial Insurance Co. of Baltimore, Md., Fla.App.1964, 166 So.2d 616; Davis v. United States Fidelity & Guaranty, Fla.App.1965, 172 So.2d 485; Sellers v. United States Fidelity and Guaranty Co., Fla.1966, 185 So.2d 689; Travelers Indemnity Co. v. Powell, Fla.App.1968, 206 So.2d 244; Butts v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co., Fla.App. 1968, 207 So.2d 73; National Service Fire Insurance Co. v. Mikell, Fla.App. 1967, 204 So.2d 343; Forbes v. Allstate Insurance Company, Fla.App.1968, 210 So.2d 244; Hartford Accident and Indemnity Co. v. Mason, Fla.App.1968, 210 So.2d 474; American Fire & Casualty Co. v. Williams, Fla.App.1969, 226 So.2d 141; Valdes v. Prudence Mutual Casualty Co., Fla.App. 1968, 207 So.2d 312; Prudential Life Insurance Co. v. Boyce, Fla.App.1970, 234 So.2d 704; and Martin v. Nationwide Mut. Fire Ins. Co., Fla.App. 1970, 235 So.2d 14. Lumbermen's Mutual Ins. Co. v. Seaton, (Fla.App.) 207 So.2d 733.
The District Court states, and we agree from our inspection, that there is no definition in the policy of the term "automobile." "Utility automobile," however, is defined for inclusion in coverage as a "truck type not used for business or com mercial purposes." It is uncontradicted, and the District Court so states, that insured "used the Camino in his work as a cement finisher." Petitioner deposed that he used the Camino primarily for hauling property used in his business. So considered, the vehicle appears to come within the definition of a "truck" rather than an "automobile," since the state required it to carry a truck license under the applicable provisions of Sections 186.03(57), 317.-011(58), and 320.01(10), Florida Statutes, F.S.A. F.S. Section 320.01(10), F.S.A., provides in part:
"(10) 'Trucks' includes any motor vehicle designed or used principally for carrying things other than passengers and includes a motor vehicle to which has been added a cabinet box, platform, rack or other equipment for the purpose of carrying merchandise other than the person or effects of the passengers " (Emphasis supplied.)
The District Court states the El Camino "has a passenger type cab and a pick-up truck type rear area." (Emphasis supplied.) 238 So.2d text, 674. As the evidence reflected, it is commonly understood that a pick-up truck is not a passenger automobile and is not licensed as such. If uninsured motorist coverage for bodily injury is to be excluded when sustained while riding in a pick-up truck, contrary to the general policy of the governing statute, the insurer should make such exclusion unmistakably clear and manifest.
Since it has been held generally that an exclusion of uninsured motorist coverage based on the type of vehicle occupied at the time of accident must be expressed in clear, plain and unambiguous language, it is little wonder the Circuit Court concluded the exclusion did not apply to the El Cami-no. Compare Valdes v. Prudence Mutual Casualty Co., Prudential Life Insurance Co. v. Boyce, and Martin v. Nationwide Mut. Fire Ins. Co., supra.
The fine print of an insurance policy, as we said in Hartnett v. Southern In-surance Co., supra, should not be read to exclude coverage unless it plainly and with certainty "brings home" in unambiguous language to the insured that he is not protected in a certain particular. Here, it was not made clear and unmistakable by the fine print to Mr. Hodges that when he was occupying his pick-up truck used in his business he was considered to be in an uninsured automobile and excluded from his auto liability policy's uninsured motorist coverage. And especially is this so when it is recalled that it has been repeatedly held that uninsured motorist coverage provided pursuant to F.S. Section 627.0851, F.S.A., ordinarily protects a named insured under all circumstances and locations when he is injured by an uninsured motorist as "if the uninsured motorist had carried the minimum limits" of an automobile liability policy. Travelers Indemnity Co. v. Powell, supra, text 246. See also: Continental Ins. Co. v. Wallace (1970 Fla.App.) 233 So.2d 195.
Other points raised by Petitioner need . not be gone into in view of our foregoing determination.
The judgment and decision of the District Court of Appeal are quashed with instruction to reinstate the judgment of the Circuit Court.
CARLTON, ADKINS and McCAIN, JJ., concur.
ROBERTS, C. J., and BOYD, J., dissent.
DEKLE, J., dissents with opinion.