Topp Import & Export, Inc. v. Home Insurance Co.

Supreme Court of Florida
Topp Import & Export, Inc. v. Home Insurance Co., 284 So. 2d 214 (Fla. 1973)
1973 Fla. LEXIS 4277
Adkins, Boyd, Ervin, McCain, Roberts

Topp Import & Export, Inc. v. Home Insurance Co.

Dissenting Opinion

ERVIN, Justice

(dissenting) :

The District Court, Fla.App., 276 So.2d 221, construed the subject insurance policy against the insured holding that the coverage did not insure against loss to import shipments. The shipments in question had been brought by vessel into the United States at Seattle, Washington in foreign commerce. There they were assembled and became cargo for interstate “piggyback” railroad shipment to New Jersey. True they had not lost their identity as imports for tax purposes, but in the common sense meaning of the insurance policy they were piggy-back cargo shipments moving in interstate commerce at the time the insured suffered their loss by physical damage and theft. The policy excluded “imports” in the sense of cargo being transported in vessels in foreign commerce, but when the “imports” were being transported “piggy-back” they came within the class of any internal shipment of that kind within the intendment of the policy. Any loss that occurred to the insured’s goods while in “piggy-back” transportation was clearly contemplated to fall within the policy’s coverage. Their character as “imports” had changed to that of goods in “piggyback” transport. In any event the policy’s ambiguous stance in the respects noted should have been judicially resolved in in-, sured’s favor.

Opinion of the Court

PER CURIAM.

This cause having heretofore been submitted to the Court on Petition for Writ of Certiorari, jurisdictional briefs and portions of the record deemed necessary to reflect jurisdiction under Florida Appellate Rule 4.5c(6), 32 F.S.A., and it appearing to the Court that it is without jurisdiction, it is ordered that the Petition for Writ of Certiorari be and the same is hereby denied.

ROBERTS, Acting C. J., and ADKINS, BOYD and McCAIN, JJ., concur. ERVIN, J., dissents with opinion.

Reference

Full Case Name
TOPP IMPORT & EXPORT, INC. v. The HOME INSURANCE COMPANY
Status
Published