The defendant National Foundation Life Insurance Company appeals from a final judgment, entered upon a special interrogatory jury verdict; the plaintiffs, in turn, appeal from an attorney’s fee award entered in their favor which they assert as being inadequate. We affirm both the final judgment and the attorney’s fee order based on the following briefly stated legal analysis.
First, we reject the defendant’s sole point on appeal that the trial court should have entered judgment in its favor based on the special interrogatory verdict. The jury found that the defendant had breached its agreement with the plaintiffs by failing to withdraw, as agreed, monies from the plaintiff James Wellington’s bank account to pay for the insurance premiums on the subject insurance policy. This being so, there was clearly insurance coverage for the plaintiff Mary Wellington on the subject insurance policy because, without dispute, the sole basis for the defendant’s denial of coverage was nonpayment of the required insurance premiums; accordingly, the trial court properly entered judgment for the plaintiffs. See Equitable Life Assurance Soc’y v. Mittelhauser,
Second, we have not overlooked the jury’s further finding that the defendant properly cancelled the policy. This finding, however, rejected an alternative theory for insurance coverage urged by the plaintiffs —namely, that the defendant had never billed the plaintiffs for the insurance premiums owed, or, if it did, there was confusion over how the premium was to be paid, and, therefore, the insurance policy would not be properly cancelled for nonpayment of premium. This finding does not conflict with the jury’s acceptance of the plaintiff’s first theory of insurance coverage, namely, that the policy was never in default in the first place. We reject the defendant’s argument that the jury’s findings, although consistent, compelled an entry of judgment for the defendant. See Papcun v. Piggy Bag Discount Souvenirs, Food & Gas Corp.,
Finally, we reject the plaintiffs’ contention that the trial court committed reversible error in refusing to apply a contingency risk multiplier in calculating the award of attorney’s fees in their favor under Florida Patient’s Compensation Fund v. Rowe,
Affirmed.
