潘金莲传媒映画

After at least three appeals court decisions in the last four years, homeowner lawsuits that take issue with a Florida insurance carrier’s managed repair program may finally have run their course.

“It really should” be a nail in the coffin for similar complaints by policyholders, said Josh Beck, one of the attorneys for People’s Trust 潘金莲传媒映画 Co., the Deerfield Beach-based property insurer that has relied heavily on managed repair clauses in policies for a decade now.

One of the homeowner’s lawyers in the most recent case said the decision Wednesday by Florida’s 3rd District Court of Appeals, which reversed a Miami-Dade jury verdict, comes just as thousands of Florida property owners deal with insurance claims resulting from back-to-back hurricanes.

“This is very upsetting to me,” attorney Anthony Accetta said Wednesday. “It’s really sad that this opinion would come out, specifically during this time, to send the message that the court of appeals is siding with the insurer over the homeowner. I think it’s just the beginning.”

The appellate court cited several recent court rulings, including two that involved People’s Trust, to find that the Miami homeowner had failed to provide a work authorization so that the insurer’s preferred contractor could repair her roof after Hurricane Irma in 2017. Citing the 4th DCA’s 2021 ruling in Castro vs. People’s Trust, the 3rd DCA panel of judges noted that the delay likely caused construction prices to rise, and exacerbated water damage, which would have cost the carrier more to have the work done.

People’s Trust, like a number of Florida insurers, offers premium discounts if homeowners agree to let the carrier’s preferred contractor perform the work.

The “breach was inherently prejudicial, because it deprived [People’s Trust] of the entire benefit of its bargain,” appeals court Judge Ivan Fernandez wrote, quoting from the Castro decision. “[The insured] obtained a premium discount by selecting the Preferred Contractor Endorsement and its option to repair, but then denied [People’s Trust] that very option to repair.”

Beck said that in most instances, insureds have been happy to have People’s Trust contractor, Rapid Response Team LLC, make storm repairs and renovations, instead of trying to find an independent construction firm during the busy time right after a hurricane.

But in this case, Clara Fernandez’s attorneys and a public adjuster were involved early on. The insured’s team conditioned the signing of a work authorization on 15 demands, a number of which had to do with attorney fees, Beck said.

The appeals court noted that once an appraisal panel had set the amount of loss and the scope of repairs needed, the policyholder was contractually obligated by the policy to authorize Rapid Response to do the work. To create unexpected conditions breaches that contract.

“The law is clear that where one party to the contract arbitrarily demands performance not required by the contract and couples this demand with a refusal to further perform unless the demand is met, the party has anticipatorily repudiated the contract, which anticipatory repudiation relieves the nonbreaching party of its duty to further perform and creates in it an immediate cause of action for breach of contract,” the 3rd DCA judges wrote, quoting from another 2021 decision.

Accetta said the circumstances were not so simple. The policyholder, in her 90s, had significant health concerns and needed to be assured of alternative living expenses and a reliable schedule about when the work would take place.

He also said the appellate judges ignored the fact that the insurance policy did not provide a work authorization form and did not specify a time frame for when the authorization had to be signed. The Castro ruling was “a completely different set of facts.”

It wasn’t until the trial in the lower court that the insured produced a signed work authorization, although the public adjuster had testified that his letter to the insurer had constituted such an authorization.

The appeals court did not agree with Accetta’s and co-counsel Lazaro Vazquez and remanded the case to Miami-Dade Circuit Court, ordering the lower court to issue a directed verdict in favor of People’s Trust.

The case began long before the Florida Legislature made sweeping changes in 2022, abolishing one-way attorney fees, fee multipliers, assignments of benefits and other incentives that insurers have said created a flood of claims litigation that almost crippled the insurance industry in the state in the early 2020s. Accetta said the appeals court ruling reflects those legislative changes and the bitter narrative promoted by insurance companies.

“The insurance industry has succeeded in convincing the public that plaintiffs’ attorneys are the bad guys,” Accetta told 潘金莲传媒映画 Journal.

Without a reasonable assurance that insureds will have their attorneys’ fees covered, “we’re the ones that have to bear the costs,” he said. That is putting a chilling effect on homeowners whose claims are denied by insurers, Accetta added.

The win for People’s Trust may be seen as something of a Pyrrhic victory: After the trial court decision, the carrier’s contractor replaced Fernandez’ roof. But People’s Trust decided to press the appeal, anyway, Accetta said.

Beck represented People’s Trust at the trial court level. He credited the appellate team, including attorney Mark Tinker with the insurance defense firm of Cole, Scott & Kissane, along with Brett Frankel, Jake Tover, and Mark Kirsch, with prevailing in the appeal.

The opinion .

Related: People’s Trust’s Lack of Repairs Caused Woman’s Death After Ian, Lawsuit Claims

Topics Florida