CopyCited 8 times | Published | Florida 1st District Court of Appeal
...RAWLS, C.J., and JOHNSON, J., concur. NOTES [1] Ordinarily a bondsman in Lane's position would be precluded by F.S.
903.33, F.S.A., from seeking discharge from forfeiture since he did not disclose his interest as indemnitor in the bond as required by F.S.
903.14, F.S.A....
CopyCited 7 times | Published | Florida 2nd District Court of Appeal
...Blair, Fort Myers, for appellees. LILES, Chief Judge. Appellant, a foreign corporation authorized to do business in this state as a bonding company, takes this appeal from an order granting appellees a summary judgment. The case involves the construction of Section 903.14, Florida Statutes, F.S.A., which reads in material part: "Contracts to Indemnify Sureties (1) Every surety for the release of any person on bail, shall file with the undertaking an affidavit stating whether or not he or any one for his...
...About one year after the execution of these two documents, however, the criminal defendant fled the State, apparently to escape prosecution, and the appearance bond was estreated and forfeited. Two weeks later appellant's attorney-in-fact executed and filed for the first time an Indemnity Affidavit called for by § 903.14....
...appellees for damages sustained from the breach of the written indemnity agreement. The trial judge subsequently granted appellees' motion for summary judgment and the bonding company appealed. The issue to be decided here is whether Florida Statute § 903.14, F.S.A....
...If they are required to be filed simultaneously, then the trial judge did not err in granting the summary judgment. The issue is one of first impression in this state, and apparently in this country. Three other states, Illinois, Indiana, and New York, have statutes similar to our § 903.14, but they are likewise unconstrued. See Ill.Stat.Ann. ch. 16, § 55 (1965); Ind. Ann.Stat. § 9-3724 (1961); N.Y.Code Crim.Proc. § 554-c (McKinney 1958). Section 903.14 begins by saying "Every surety for the release of any person on bail, shall file with the undertaking an affidavit * * *." (Emphasis supplied.) The legislature must be assumed to have intended the plain meaning of its words, and the wo...
...Neal v. Bryant, Fla. 1962,
149 So.2d 529, 532, 97 A.L.R.2d 819. The obvious meaning of "shall file with the undertaking" is, therefore, that the indemnity affidavit, if one is entered into, must be filed simultaneously with the bail bond undertaking. Section
903.14 is imperative, not discretionary. *82 There is a second and deeper reason for construing §
903.14 in a mandatory fashion....
...The intent of the legislature is the touchstone. Florida Indus. Comm. v. Manpower, Inc., Fla. 1956,
91 So.2d 197; Sunshine State News Co. v. State, Fla. App. 1960,
121 So.2d 705; Wallace Corp. v. Overstreet, Fla.App. 1958,
99 So.2d 626. The key to the intent of the legislature in enacting §
903.14 is found in the theory upon which appearance bonds are predicated....
...ted as a penalty. If the surety is indemnified by a third party, however, the risk of penalty is shifted to the indemnitor, and in such a case it is the indemnitor who is the true bondsman. It, thus, becomes apparent that the legislature intended by § 903.14 to place the indemnitor on an equal footing with the surety, so that the former might protect the property risked through the indemnity agreement. This result could only be accomplished by requiring the bonding company to reveal the indemnitor to the sheriff at the same time the bail bond undertaking is filed. We, therefore, hold that Section 903.14, Florida Statutes, F.S.A., requires the simultaneous filing of the bail bond undertaking with the indemnity affidavit and affirm....
CopyCited 5 times | Published | Florida 3rd District Court of Appeal | 10 Fla. L. Weekly 1744
...Sullivan, Coral Gables, for appellants. Horton, Perse & Ginsberg and Mallory Horton, Miami, for appellees. Before SCHWARTZ, C.J., and DANIEL S. PEARSON and JORGENSON, JJ. SCHWARTZ, Chief Judge. We agree with the conclusions below that the provision of section 903.14(3), Florida Statutes (1981) [1] that the bondsman's statement of any bond indemnification agreement "must" be filed in the trial court within thirty days after the execution of the bond is directory rather than mandatory; and, as a res...
...1949), we are very loath, in the absence of a clear legislative command, to require the cancellation of an otherwise binding obligation because of a technical default which acknowledgedly did not affect the substantial rights of the parties. Affirmed. NOTES [1] The entire statute is as follows: 903.14 Contracts to indemnify sureties....
CopyCited 3 times | Published | Florida 3rd District Court of Appeal
...In May 1980, plaintiffs' son was required to post a criminal appearance bond in Palm Beach County. A bonding company agreed to post the $100,000 bond and in return plaintiffs signed a mortgage and promissory note encumbering their home. The bonding company failed to file an affidavit as required by Section 903.14, Florida Statutes (1983), thereby creating an absolute defense to any subsequent foreclosure action....
...ongoing relationship with the bonding company, they requested only that the action be delayed so that they could raise the funds to repay the debt. In any event, the attorney filed an answer in the foreclosure action, but failed to adequately plead Section 903.14 as an affirmative defense....
CopyPublished | Supreme Court of Florida | 1949 Fla. LEXIS 736
...Section 903.35, F.S.A., makes certain acts of Clerk with reference to the acceptance and approval as sureties of any professional bondsman, not registered with the Clerk of the Circuit Court and qualified to act as a surety, a misdemeanor. The several provisions of Section 903.14 , F.S.A., are applicable to personal sureties and not surety companies as defined by Chapter 648, F.S.A....
CopyPublished | District Court of Appeal of Florida | 12 Fla. L. Weekly 2019, 1987 Fla. App. LEXIS 9952
...rtgage on real property in Escambia County. Appellant also sought a separate judgment against Dana Green on the bond agreement. The trial court dismissed the foreclosure count, finding appellant failed to include any pleading that an affidavit under section 903.14, Florida Statutes had been filed with the bond....
...That statute requires a surety to file with a bail bond an affidavit stating the amount and source of any security received or promised for the bond. The trial court found that the mortgage encumbered real property in Florida, had been executed in Florida and was therefore subject to the laws of Florida, including section 903.14. Under section 903.14, Florida Statutes, where a contract is entered into to indemnify a bail bond surety, the “surety shall file *440 with the bond an affidavit stating the amount and source of any security or consideration which he or anyone for his use has received or been promised for the bond....
...there is a final determination of an action regarding the affidavits instituted within two years. However, these protections were only intended to extend to bonds posted in Florida courts under Chapter 903, Florida Statutes. The filing provisions of section 903.14 are merely a procedural aspect attaching to indemnification agreements entered into to guarantee bail bonds for defendants in Florida courts....
...A Virginia court would not likely send notice or copies of the affidavit to clerks of Florida courts when a bond is forfeited there. Thus, there would be no recording of the affidavit which effected a lien on the property. 2 The trial court erred in dismissing the complaint because appellant had failed to comply with section 903.14. That section would not apply. Therefore, appellant should be allowed to proceed with this foreclosure action. The order appealed is REVERSED and the cause REMANDED for further proceedings. SHIVERS and NIMMONS, JJ., concur. . Section 903.14 has been construed to place an indemnitor on an equal footing with a surety as the indemnification agreement shifts to the in-demnitor the risk of loss in the event the bond is forfeited....
CopyPublished | Florida 3rd District Court of Appeal | 1982 Fla. App. LEXIS 19850
...Appellants challenge a Final Judgment of Foreclosure entered against property they pledged as security for their son’s appearance on criminal charges. They contend that the entry of summary judgment was error because the bonding company failed to file the full statement required by section 903.14, Florida Statutes (1979), 1 setting forth the amount of its bond and the source *945 of the security....
...hearing which preceded the entry of summary judgment. He contends, nevertheless, that the trial court should have reopened the case after summary judgment had been entered because appellants’ new counsel wished to raise the lack of compliance with section 903.14 as “additional evidence.” We disagree....
...3d DCA 1977), especially when the matters it seeks to present by amendment were available prior to the entry of summary judgment. Appellants’ failure to support their motion for rehearing by furnishing the court with the statement alleged to be violative of section
903.14 and to assert their affirmative defense prior to the entry of summary judgment precludes them from raising the issue on appeal. Incomplete compliance with section
903.14 does not defeat the court’s jurisdiction; the defense of failure to comply with the statutory condition must be asserted or the condition is waived. See Dober v. Worrell,
401 So.2d 1322 (Fla.1981); Sotille v. Gaines Construction Co.,
281 So.2d 558 (Fla. 3d DCA 1973), cert. denied,
289 So.2d 737 (Fla.1974); Fla. R.Civ.P. 1.140(b). Affirmed. .
903.14 Contracts to indemnify surities.— (1) A surety shall file with the bond an affidavit stating the amount and source of any security or consideration which he or anyone for his use has received or been promised for the bond....
