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Judicial Creation Of Direct Actions Against Automobile Liability Insurers: Shingleton V. Bussey, Jason G. Reynolds

Vanderbilt Law Review

Elizabeth R. Bussey commenced a negligence action in a Florida state trial court against Frances R.B. Shingleton for damages sustained in an automobile mishap. The accident itself was a rather ordinary rear-end collision. Out of the ordinary, however, was the fact that the plaintiff joined as a party defendant Shingleton's liability insurer, Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company. The trial judge, following the insurance policy's non-joinder provisions' and the weight of authority in Florida and elsewhere, granted Nationwide's motion that it be dismissed as a party defendant. Plaintiff appealed this order to the Florida District Court of Appeal on the theory that, …