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:

Sinkhole presumption: FSC Arguments in Warfel

The Florida Supreme Court today heard argument in Universal Insurance Co. v. Warfel, which involves the significant issue of whether the findings and conclusions of the insurance company's experts are presumed correct when litigating a sinkhole claim.  This case is particularly unusual because the jury actually found that damage to the insured's home was not caused by a sinkhole, in part due to presumption language added by 2005 legislative reforms.

The decision is likely to turn on whether the Florida Supreme Court finds any implicit legislative intent to create a litigation presumption based on public or social policy (as Universal argued), or whether the presumption is limited to the claims investigation process (as Warfel argued).  Constitutional retroactivity also could come into play.

Below, after a summary of the case, there are some unofficial excerpts from the argument.

UM not payable if insured fails to attend CME

Benefits are not payable under uninsured motorist (UM) coverage if an insured violates a policy condition by failing to attend a compulsory medical exam.  That is the decision of Fifth District Court of Appeals in State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. v. Curran (Fla. 5th DCA Jan. 28, 2011).

1st DCA Rules Public Adjuster Solicitation Ban Unconstitutional

Read Jeff Kuntz's post on Kortum v. Sink (Fla 1st DCA 2010), in which the First District held that section 626.854(6), Florida Statutes (2008), which bans all solicitation by public adjusters for 48 hours, is a restriction on commercial speech that violates Article I, § 4 of the Florida Constitution. 
http://www.floridalegalblog.org/2010/12/first-district-holds-that-public.html

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.