Florida/Georgia Personal Injury & Workers Compensation

...Premium Budget Service routinely sold the finance contracts to Devco. Bowling's draft on Devco for the premium was payable to Premium Budget Service, which then remitted to Atlas, the producing agency. [6] The hearing officer in this case recommended revocation but expressed the opinion that Section 626.681 ("Administrative fine in lieu of suspension, revocation, or refusal of license") permits the Department to fine Bowling instead of revoking or suspending his license....

...The severity of the penalty to be imposed must be determined under the statute prescribing the grounds and penalty for the most serious offense. Thus, when one has violated section 626.611 and 626.621, section 626.611 governs the penalty to be imposed. Section 626.681 authorizes the Department to impose an administrative fine in lieu of discretionary suspension or revocation for violation of section 626.621: (1) Except as to insurance agencies, if the department finds that one or more grounds exist...

...ent finds that one or more grounds exist for the suspension, revocation, or refusal to renew or continue any license or permit issued under this part, the department may, in its discretion, except when an administrative fine is not permissible under s. 626.681 or when such suspension, revocation, or refusal is mandatory, in lieu of such suspension, revocation, or refusal, or in connection with any administrative monetary penalty imposed under s. 626.681, place the offending licensee or permittee on probation for a period, not to exceed 2 years, as specified by the department in its order....

...The statutory scheme is abundantly clear that when a licensed insurance agent has violated section 626.611, such violation requires mandatory suspension or revocation, precluding the application of section 626.621 and use of the alternative sanctions as provided in sections 626.681 and 626.691....

...Therefore, the recommended order erred as a matter of law in recommending that the six-month suspension not be implemented and a fine and probation be imposed instead. In view of this mandatory suspension, the Department was not authorized to impose an administrative fine in any amount under the provisions of section 626.681....

...Sections 626.9521 and 626.9541 are found in Part X of chapter 626, known as the "Unfair Insurance Trade Practices Act," and, the Department argues, additional penalties by administrative fine are authorized by section 626.9521 without regard to the limitations in section 626.681 because this latter section is in Part I of the chapter....

...epartment may, in lieu of such revocation or suspension, impose a fine upon the insurer. " (Emphasis added.) Subparagraphs (2) and (3) of that section set forth the limits of fines that can be imposed under that section and, unlike the provisions of section 626.681, authorize separate fines for each violation found not to exceed a specified aggregate....

...Nevertheless, even after traversing from section 626.9541 to section 626.9521 to section 627.381, thence back to section 624.4211 we have found that section 624.4211 only authorizes the imposition of a fine in lieu of suspension or revocation, the same as section 626.681....

...We agree with Dyer's argument that the exceptionally large fines authorized in section 624.4211, when considered in context with the explicit language in subparagraph (1) thereof authorizing imposition of these fines "upon an insurer" and the limits on fines to be imposed on insurance agents contained in section 626.681, leave the statutory scheme sufficiently ambiguous that a strict construction of the statutory language requires that we hold that the penalty in section 624.4211 is inapplicable to individual insurance agents like Dyer....

...Second, even if a fine could be validly assessed in lieu of suspension for violating section 626.9541(1), as argued by the Department, the final order erred in requiring that if the fine should not be paid within 30 days, Dyer's license would stand revoked. Section 626.681(3) states that upon failure to timely pay the fine, the license "shall stand suspended or revoked ......