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State Farm Life Insurance Company v. Florida Asset Financing Corporation6/28/2000
State Farm Life Insurance Company and State Farm Fire and Casualty Company ("State Farm") appeal a final summary judgment and final judgment of garnishment in favor of Florida Asset Financing Corporation ("Florida Asset"). We affirm.
David Rash entered into a structured settlement agreement of his personal injury claim against State Farm Fire and Casualty Company and its insureds. Mr. Rash executed a release that set forth the terms of the structured settlement. The release required State Farm Fire and Casualty Company to pay Mr. Rash the sum of $600.00 each month for life, not to exceed 360 months. State Farm Fire and Casualty Company elected to fund the settlement by purchasing an annuity from State Farm Life Insurance Company. The annuity guaranteed Mr. Rash 360 monthly payments of $600.00 with the first payment due December 15, 1985, and the final payment due November 15, 2015.
Sometime after the settlement, Mr. Rash was incarcerated on unrelated charges. In order to obtain funds to retain an attorney to prosecute an appeal and/or post-conviction relief on his behalf, Mr. Rash approached a broker "for the purposes of attempting to locate a person or company that would be willing to pay money as an advance on future annuity payments due under the State Farm Life Insurance Company's Annuity policy." Florida Asset agreed to purchase Mr. Rash's "rights to certain payments" for the sum of $27,928.85. Under the terms of the purchase contract, Florida Asset purchased "one hundred and twenty (120) monthly payments [of $600.00 each] commencing December 15, 1998 and ending on November 15, 2008 together with an additional eighty-four payments of $600.00 each from December 15, 2008 though November 15, 2015 serving as additional security for transaction." Mr. Rash expressly waived "any and all exemption rights from garnishment," agreed to execute any other documents to effectuate the intent and purpose of the agreement, and consented to the entry of a judgment against him personally.
Thereafter, Florida Asset sued Mr. Rash. Mr. Rash admitted the allegations in the complaint, waived all statutory exemptions, including exemptions for annuities, consented to the writ of garnishment, and asked the trial court to enter judgment in Florida Asset's favor. The trial court entered an "Agreed Final Judgment" in favor of Florida Asset and against Mr. Rash, and a final judgment of garnishment in favor of Florida Asset and against State Farm Life Insurance Company.
After Florida Asset served State Farm Life Insurance Company with the writ of garnishment, State Farm filed a declaratory judgment action and moved to have the writ of garnishment dissolved. The trial court dismissed State Farm's declaratory relief action, granted Florida Asset's motion for summary judgment, and entered a separate final judgment of garnishment in favor of Florida Asset for $72,000 (120 monthly payments commencing December 15, 1998 and continuing through and including November 15, 2008), secured by eighty-four monthly payments commencing December 15, 2008 and continuing through and including November 15, 2015.
State Farm contends that Mr. Rash's assignment of payments to Florida Asset was invalid because it was contrary to the terms of the annuity contract. The annuity contract provides that " nly the owner [State Farm Fire and Casualty Company] may assign rights under this policy." It further states, under the heading, "Change in Beneficiary," that " ith the consent of the Owner, the Payee [Mr. Rash] may make a change by sending State Farm Life a request." Mr. Rash was not a signatory to the annuity contract. Only State Farm Fire and Casualty Company and State Farm Life Insurance Company were
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