Inspired by California SB 1235, much of SB 5470 is dedicated to the definitions section with the following being two examples:
- Commercial financing means an account receivable purchase, future receivables purchase, commercial line of credit or commercial loan, the proceeds of which the recipient does not intend to use primarily for personal, family or household purposes. For purposes of determining whether a financing is a commercial financing, the provider may rely on any statement of intended purposes by the recipient. The statement may be a separate statement signed by the recipient; may be contained in the financing application, financing agreement or other document signed or consented to by the recipient; or may be provided orally by the recipient so long as it is documented in the recipient’s application file by the provider. Electronic signatures and consents are valid for purposes of the foregoing sentence. The provider shall not be required to ascertain that the proceeds of a commercial financing are used in accordance with the recipient’s statement of intended purposes.
- Commercial loan means a closed-end extension of credit, secured or unsecured, the proceeds of which the recipient does not intend to use primarily for personal, family or household purposes.
ELFA’s concerns with this legislation have been shared with the sponsor and ELFA will continue to monitor this legislation closely, making certain our interests are promoted and protected.
Florida Vicarious Liability Fix Passes and Is Signed into Law
Florida Senate Bill 862 by Senate Judiciary Committee member Sen. Kelli Stargel (R-Polk & Lake County) was signed into law on June 18, 2019, by Gov. Ron DeSantis. Opposed by the Florida trial bar, this important industry liability reform overcame its final hurdle, passing the House on April 30 by a vote of 83-32.
ELFA has joined forces with member companies in the construction and agriculture sectors, the Florida Chamber and the Florida Justice Reform Institute to proactively amend Florida’s Dangerous Instrumentality Doctrine (DID), which through judicial fiat had been expanded to a degree of absurdity not seen in another state, putting any lessor of equipment in or into Florida at risk. ELFA and allied organizations worked to ensure that final language and passage of this corrective legislation addresses our concerns as financers and/or lessors. Senate Bill 862 was filed together with Florida House Bill 355 to restore normalcy by addressing lessor liability specifically for “special mobile equipment,” as defined below.
“Special mobile equipment” is defined as “any vehicle not designed or used primarily for the transportation of persons or property and only incidentally operated or moved over a highway, including, but not limited to, ditchdigging apparatus, well-boring apparatus and road construction and maintenance machinery, such as asphalt spreaders, bituminous mixers, bucket loaders, tractors other than truck tractors, ditchers, leveling graders, finishing machines, motor graders, road rollers, scarifiers, earthmoving carryalls and scrapers, power shovels and draglines, and self-propelled cranes and earthmoving equipment. The term does not include house trailers, dump trucks, truck-mounted transit mixers, cranes or shovels, or other vehicles designed for the transportation of persons or property to which machinery has been attached.” Fla. Stat. §316.003(75).
The DID specifies factors to be considered by a court in determining, as matter of law, whether instrumentality is dangerous instrumentality; provides that special equipment for which a lessee maintains specified insurance is not dangerous instrumentality; provides that a lessor may be liable for damages in specified circumstances; and provides that person is not liable for any injury, death or damage caused by dangerous instrumentality unless the person had direct custody and control over instrumentality at time of injury, death or damage.
