Chalfonte decided - first-party bad faith is statutory only

There should be a gigantic sense of relief (and appropriately so) on the part of in-house counsel and executives of insurers doing business in Florida. Yesterday, the Florida Supreme Court resolved important questions regarding liability in first-party insurance cases, in the long-awaited QBE Insurance Corp. v. Chalfonte Condominum Apartment Assoc., No. SC09-441 (Fla., May 31, 2012).

The three key decisions of the Court are summarized below:

O&P Insurance Class Actions and the Predominance Test

Hurricanes have long tails. Six years after the 2004 hurricane season, class actions are being actively litigated on the issue of general contractor's overhead and profit ("O&P"). In a just-released opinion, Mills v. Foremost Insurance Company, a Tampa federal trial court has denied certification of an O&P class action, principally reasoning that O&P claims could not meet the "predominance" test of the class action rules.

Insurance Appraisal Dispute: Cone and Kuntz File Amicus Brief in U.S. 11th Circuit

GrayRobinson attorneys Perry Cone and Jeffrey Kuntz filed an amicus curiae brief on behalf of the American Insurance Association (AIA).

The brief was filed with the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, in Chubb Custom Insurance Company v. Vista View Apartments, Ltd. The appeal involved the important question of whether Florida's federal courts would follow its state courts in allowing the review of an appraisal award to eliminate uncovered losses.