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Amerisure Insurance Co. v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co.3/17/2005
We have for review the decision in Amerisure Insurance Co. v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co., 865 So. 2d 590 (Fla. 2d DCA 2004), which cited with approval the opinion of the Fifth District Court of Appeal in Dealers Insurance Co. v. Jon Hall Chevrolet Co., 547 So. 2d 325 (Fla. 5th DCA 1989), but certified conflict with the decision of the Third District Court of Appeal in Florida Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance Co. v. Tropicana Products, Inc., 456 So. 2d 549 (Fla. 3d DCA 1984). We have jurisdiction. See art. V, § 3(b)(4), Fla. Const. For the reasons set forth below, we approve the Second District Court of Appeal's decision that section 627.7405, Florida Statutes (2001), does not violate Amerisure's rights under the equal protection clauses of the federal and state constitutions.
FACTS
Kelly Edman and her children were injured in an automobile accident while Edman was driving a commercial motor vehicle owned by Wright Construction Corporation and insured by Amerisure. Edman was not at fault. After the accident, State Farm, the insurer of Edman's private passenger motor vehicle, paid personal injury protection (PIP) benefits to Edman in compliance with the Florida Motor Vehicle No-Fault Law. See §§ 627.730-.7405, Fla. Stat. (2001). State Farm then requested reimbursement from Amerisure under the provisions of section 627.7405, requiring insurers of commercial vehicles to reimburse insurers of private vehicles for PIP payments. Amerisure refused to pay, and contended that it was not obligated to reimburse State Farm because neither Edman nor Wright Construction Corporation was at fault in the accident. State Farm then sued Amerisure, claiming a right to reimbursement under section 627.7405. The trial court granted final summary judgment in favor of State Farm's claim that it was entitled to reimbursement under the statute.
On appeal, the Second District affirmed the final summary judgment, citing agreement with the Fifth District's holding in Dealers that the plain language of section 627.7405 "provide for reimbursement without regard to fault and . . . b[ears] a reasonable relationship to the legitimate state interest of regulating insurance." Amerisure, 865 So. 2d at 593.
ANALYSIS
Section 627.7405 provides:
Insurers' right of reimbursement.--Notwithstanding any other provisions of ss . 627.730-627.7405, any insurer providing personal injury protection benefits on a private passenger motor vehicle shall have, to the extent of any personal injury protection benefits paid to any person as a benefit arising out of such private passenger motor vehicle insurance, a right of reimbursement against the owner or the insurer of the owner of a commercial motor vehicle, if the benefits paid result from such person having been an occupant of the commercial motor vehicle or having been struck by the commercial motor vehicle while not an occupant of any self-propelled vehicle.
In its opinion, the district court rejected Amerisure's contention that section 627.7405 creates an arbitrary classification of private and commercial vehicles in violation of the equal protection clauses of the federal and state constitutions. The Second District noted that Amerisure "concede that section 627.7405 serves a legitimate governmental purpose," Amerisure, 865 So. 2d at 592 ("The legislative history indicates that the amendments were designed in part to reduce overall automobile insurance rates."), and that Amerisure acknowledged a plausible reason for the classification; that is, that section 627.7405 reallocates some of the risk from the insurers of private vehicles to the insurers of commercial vehicles, with the result of reducing insurance p
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