The Florida Insurance Law Blog
By Jeffrey T. Donner, Esq.
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The Fourth District recently addressed the measure of damages recoverable for the breach of a replacement cost property insurance policy, in a denial as opposed to a price-and-scope case, when the insured sells the property before making repairs. See Universal Property & Casualty Ins. Co. v. Qureshi, ___ So. 3d ___ (Fla. 4th DCA 2024).…
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The Fourth District just reminded us—again—that an insured must provide the insurance company with prompt notice of a claim to have any prayer of winning in a lawsuit against the insurance company alleging a wrongful denial of coverage. In the last two years, the cases in which insurance companies have won on this issue have…
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In Premark Intern., Inc. v. Pierson, 823 So. 2d 859 (Fla. 5th DCA 2002), the Fifth District considered a case in which the trial court struck an expert witness based on a problem coordinating the expert’s availability for a CME. This is an important case for those of us handling first-party property insurance cases in…
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Striking of Pleadings is an Often Favored Remedy for a Party’s Misconduct in the Litigation Process.
In Empire World Towers, LLC v. CDR Creances, S.A.S., 89 So. 3d 1034 (Fla. 3d DCA 2012), the Third District confronted a case with an incredible set of facts involving brazen fraud on the court. Leon Cohen, Maurice Cohen, and Sonia Cohen (collectively, the “Cohens”) appealed from a final order granting CDR Créances’ (the “Bank”)…
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In Homeowners Choice v. Thompson, 377 So.3d 1204 (Fla. 1st DCA 2023), notorious wannabe bully, Curt Allen, got verbally spanked yet again. Curt had his client, the insurer, claim that its claims and underwriting files were categorically protected against discovery in the insured homeowners’ first-party breach of contract lawsuit. In Thompson, Hurricane Sally had damaged…
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In First Cmty. Ins. Co. v. Adjei, 365 So. 3d 1208 (Fla. 3d DCA 2023), the Third District considered a first-party property insurance case in which the trial court entered a nonfinal order compelling appraisal. The appellate court held that the trial court violated the insurer’s due process rights by considering and adjudicating the appraisal issue when no proper…
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As I’ve discussed previously, Citizens (and many other insurance companies) use “corporate representatives” for the purpose of depositions who have no actual prior knowledge about the handling of the claim. None. They literally hire third-party persons to study the file and testify off of the cold file, like a student studying for an exam. They…
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When is there sufficient evidence to support a jury’s verdict that an insured suffered a covered property damages loss? The federal Eleventh Circuit recently provided some guidance in a case that involved a prior claim that the insurer had admitted was covered but found to be under deductible. In First Baptist Church of Lillian v.…
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In Certain Underwriters at Lloyd’s, London v. Gables Court Condo. Ass’n, Inc., 357 So. 3d 759 (Fla. 3d DCA 2023), the Third District reminded us that a lawyer’s representations are not evidence. The court held that representations by an insured condominium association’s counsel that its meeting minutes and invoices for completed roof repairs and repairs…
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In Sanchez v. Security First Ins. Co., 2024 WL 949223 (Fla. 3d DCA 2024), Judge Scales of the Third District Court of Appeals recently wrote an important special concurring opinion in a case in which a Third District panel felt bound by an earlier panel’s decision to follow the Fourth District’s view that the (obviously…
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