Benitez v. Insurance Co. of North America

The order under review is reversed upon a holding that the trial court did not acquire jurisdiction over the defendant Angel Benitez as the substituted service of process attempted herein under Section 48.161 and 48.171, Florida Statutes (1979), was legally ineffective for two reasons [either one of which was sufficient to defeat the substituted service of process] to wit: (a) the plaintiff Insurance Company of North America’s complaint failed, as required by law, to allege that the above defendant was either a non-resident of Florida or was concealing his whereabouts, and (b) there was an…