American Bankers Life Assur. Co. of Fla. v. Williams, K--70
| Decision Date | 23 July 1968 |
| Docket Number | No. K--70,K--70 |
| Citation | 212 So.2d 777 |
| Parties | AMERICAN BANKERS LIFE ASSURANCE COMPANY OF FLORIDA, Petitioner, v. Broward WILLIAMS, As State Treasurer and Insurance Commissioner, Respondent. |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
Helliwell, Melrose & DeWolf, Miami, for petitioner.
Thomas E. Boyle and Stephen Marc Slepin, Asst. Attys. Gen., and Robert E. Gibson, Insurance Counsel, for respondent.
American Bankers Life Assurance Company of Florida, a domestic life insurance company, filed its petition for writ of certiorari to review a final order of the Insurance Commissioner construing the phrase 'taken by' when used in Section 624.0227, Florida Statutes, F.S.A., as having the effect of requiring an application for a life insurance policy to be either signed in the presence of the agent or submitted to him for scrutiny in the applicant's presence before being forwarded to the company for acceptance or rejection.
The construction of the above-mentioned statute is the only issue before this court.
Section 624.0227, Florida Statutes, F.S.A., reads as follows:
'(1) No life insurer shall deliver or issue for delivery in this state any policy of life insurance, * * * unless the application for such policy or contract is Taken by, and the delivery of such policy or contract is made through, an insurance agent of the insurer duly licensed under the law of Florida, who shall receive the usual commission due to an agent from such insurer.
'(2) Each such insurer shall maintain a licensed insurance agent at all times for the purpose of and through whom policies or contracts issued or delivered in this state, shall be serviced.
'(3) This section shall not apply to policies of insurance or annuity contracts on nonresidents which are applied for outside of and delivered in the state.' (Emphasis supplied.)
The petitioner contends that the intent of the statute is to assure that all applications will pass through a licensed Florida agent and to prevent mail-order insurance written by nonadmitted insurers having no agents in Florida, but it does not require the physical presence of an agent at the time the application is completed. We agree.
In construing the above statute we are compelled to use the same rules as govern this court in construing any and all statutes. Words of common usage should be construed in their plain and ordinary sense. 1 The word 'take' is a very general term with many definitions and without any very specific connotation. Among the most common meanings are: 'to get into one's hands or into one's possession, power or control by force or...
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