Under Florida law, How Does a Court Determine the Meaning of an Undefined Term in an Insurance Policy?

When a term in an insurance policy is undefined and the meaning of the term determines the outcome of a dispute, “Florida courts ‘commonly adopt the plain meaning of words contained in legal and non-legal dictionaries.’" See Hegel v. First Liberty Ins. Corp., 778 F.3d 1214, 1221 (11th Cir. 2015)(citing to Brill v. Indianapolis Life Ins. Co., 784 F.2d 1511, 1513 (11th Cir. 1986) (citing to Gov't Emps. Ins. Co. v. Novak, 453 So. 2d 1116, 1118 (Fla. 1984)). If a court is unable to determine a singular, plain meaning for an undefined term in an insurance policy (i.e., the term is ambiguous and susceptible to more than one reasonable meaning based on the review of dictionaries), then additional standards are applied. For more information on this topic, please review the blog post titled “Under Florida law, How Does a Court Interpret Ambiguous Terms in an Insurance Policy?.”

Joel Ewusiak represents clients in disputes with life insurance companies concerning the meaning of terms in policies. Please contact Joel for legal help with your specific matter.