Title: Government Employees Insurance Co. v. Grounds
Citation: 332 So. 2d 13
Docket Number: 47382
State: Florida
Issuer: Florida Supreme Court
Date: April 7, 1976

332 So. 2d 13 (1976)
GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES INSURANCE COMPANY, a Corporation, Petitioner,
v.
A.C. GROUNDS, Respondent.
No. 47382.

Supreme Court of Florida.
April 7, 1976.
Rehearing Denied May 28, 1976.
*14 Benjamin W. Redding, Barron, Redding, Boggs &amp; Hughes, Panama City, and Gurney, Gurney &amp; Handley, Orlando, for petitioner.
Lefferts L. Mabie, Jr., Levin, Warfield, Middlebrooks, Graff, Mabie, Rosenbloum &amp; Magie, Pensacola, for respondent.
PER CURIAM.
We have granted certiorari in this cause on the basis of conflict for the limited purpose of expunging certain language contained in the First District Court of Appeal decision which directly conflicts with this Court's decision in Nationwide Mutual Ins. Co. v. McNulty, 229 So. 2d 585 (Fla. 1969).
The conflicting language in the instant decision relates to the nature of an excess action against an insurance company for bad faith failure to settle and is as follows:
This Court in McNulty, supra, quoted with approval the following excerpt from the Third District Court of Appeal in the same case reported at 221 So. 2d 208 (3d D.C.A.Fla. 1969):
Finding that this is an action ex contractu rather than tort will not alter the decision of the District Court insofar as it determines that Florida law should apply as opposed to Mississippi law, which does not allow excess judgment recoveries. In this case, this is so because the obligation of the contract breached by petitioner was the obligation to provide respondent a good faith defense to the action. Such goes to petitioner's performance under the contract (or lack thereof), and matters concerning *15 performance are determined by the law of the place of performance under traditional conflict of laws principles. Scudder v. Union Nat'l Bank, 91 U.S. 406, 23 L. Ed. 245 (1876); State-Wide Ins. Co. v. Flaks, 233 So. 2d 400 (3d D.C.A.Fla. 1970), cert. dismissed, 238 So. 2d 427 (Fla. 1970); Castorri v. Milbrand, 118 So. 2d 563 (2d D.C.A.Fla. 1960). In the instant case, the place of performance was Florida, where the cause of action against respondent was maintained and was defended by petitioner.
Issues unrelated to the foregoing, which were raised by the petitioner's brief, have been considered and found to be without merit. We find discussion of such points to be unnecessary to the just determination of this cause.
Accordingly, the conflicting language is expunged and there being no longer any foundation for conflict certiorari, the Petition for Writ of Certiorari is discharged.
It is so ordered.
OVERTON, C.J., and ROBERTS, ADKINS, BOYD and SUNDBERG, JJ., concur.