Court Opinion

ID: 9446726
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 22:17:03.461493+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:30:45.517495
License: Public Domain

RIVES, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
The Legislature of the State of Florida has enacted that, “All provisions and stipulations contained in any contract whatever * * * fixing the period of time in which suits may be instituted under any such contract * * *, at a period of time less than that provided by the statute of limitations of this state, are hereby declared to be contrary to the public policy of this state, and to be illegal and void. No court in this state shall give effect to any provision or stipulation of the character mentioned in this section.” F.S.A. § 95.03. The language of that statute seems to me to leave no room for construction; it applies to “any contract whatever.”
No one has attacked the validity of that statute as applied to contracts made in Florida, or can reasonably do so. Stipulations shortening the period of limitation result in the same evils and abuses whether entered into in the State of Florida or outside that State. I cannot agree that the Florida Legislature, or the courts of that State, must accord to such a stipulation contained in an ambulatory contract of insurance held by a Florida resident, but entered into in Illinois, any greater sanctity than they would accord to such a stipulation made in Florida. I think that the Florida Legislature can protect residents of that State against the application in Florida courts of stipulations shortening the period of limitation in contracts performed in Florida regardless of the place where the contracts are executed. I therefore respectfully dissent.
Rehearings denied; RIVES, Circuit Judge, dissenting.