United Services Auto. Ass'n v. Cotter

• Decision Date: 10 December 1970
• Docket Number: No. L--436,L--436
• Citation: 241 So.2d 733
• Court: Florida District Court of Appeals
• Parties: UNITED SERVICES AUTOMOBILE ASSOCIATION, a reciprocal insurance association, Appellant, v. Charles L. COTTER, also known as Charles Lee Cotter, Appellee.

Page 733

241 So.2d 733

UNITED SERVICES AUTOMOBILE ASSOCIATION, a reciprocal insurance association, Appellant, v. Charles L. COTTER, also known as Charles Lee Cotter, Appellee.

No. L--436.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, First District.

Dec. 10, 1970.

Mercer P. Spear, Panama City, for appellant.

Logue, Bennett & Williams, Panama City, for appellee.

JOHNSON, Chief Judge.

The appellee herein obtained a judgment in damages against two parties, Earl A. Allen and Billy Earl Kelley, in the amount of $26,090.00 plus certain costs, which judgment was entered September 4, 1968. The debtor Allen, supra, was insured but the debtor Kelley was uninsured. The accident resulting in the damages to appellee was a three-way automobile accident.

Subsequent to the time the September 4, 1968 judgment was entered and prior to payment or satisfaction thereof, the judgment creditor, appellee herein, filed action against the appellant herein, appellee's insurer, under the uninsured motorist provision of appellee's insurance policy issued by appellant. A final judgment was entered in this latter suit on April 17, 1969, against the appellant in the amount of $10,000.00 plus interest and attorneys fee. This latter judgment was appealed by the appellant herein to this court, notice of appeal being filed May 16, 1969. While this case was in process of appeal, the appellee herein had procured a final judgment in Garnishment against Government Employees Insurance Company on June 5, 1969, for the sum of $21,227.94, plus interest at the legal rate from September 4, 1968, the date of the original judgment in damages, upon the entire amount of the original judgment, until paid, including costs. This latter judgment was paid and satisfied on the 20th day of June, 1969, said payment being apportioned $21,000.00 on the principal of the September 4, 1968 judgment, leaving a balance of $5,317.94 unpaid on said judgment, and the interest on said original judgment paid from September 4, 1968 to June 20, 1969.

Upon petition to this court to relinquish jurisdiction back to the trial court for modification of the final judgment in this case because of the payments pointed out, supra, this court did grant such petition and the modified judgment was entered January 5, 1970. The appellant then was granted the right and did file amendments to its assignments of error.

The modified judgment reduced the amount of the original judgment of $10,000.00 recoverable under the uninsured motorists provision, to the principal amount of $5,317.94, with interest on $10,000 from February 25, 1967, the date the injuries were sustained until September 4, 1968, the date of the original judgment; and interest on $5,317.94 from June 20, 1969, the date of modification...