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Defending Liability, Workers' Compensation, Employment Claims and Appeals Since 1982

Archives for October 2020

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Insurance — Automobile — Bad faith — Failure to settle — Notice of suit — Trustee of insured’s bankruptcy estate brought action against automobile insurer alleging bad faith or negligent failure to settle underlying negligence suit that insurer neither knew about nor participated in, as the attorney for injured party did not notify insurer about the suit and insured driver assumed insurer was handling the case — Questions certified to Supreme Court of Georgia: When an insurer has no notice of a lawsuit against its insured, does O.C.G.A. § 33-7-15 and a virtually identical insuring provision relieve the insurer of liability from a follow-on suit for bad faith? If the notice provisions do not bar liability for a bad-faith claim, can an insured sue the insurer for bad faith when, after the insurer refused to settle but before judgment was entered against the insured, the insured lost coverage for failure to comply with a notice provision? Does a party have the right to contest actual damages in a follow-on suit for bad faith if that party had no prior notice of or participation in the original suit?

28 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. C1928b FIFE M. WHITESIDE, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. GEICO INDEMNITY COMPANY, Defendant-Appellant. 11th Circuit. Case No. 18-15074. September 28, 2020. Appeal from the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia (No. 4:16-cv-00313-CDL). (Before WILSON and GRANT, Circuit Judges, and MARTINEZ,* District Judge.) (GRANT, Circuit Judge.) In this bad-faith suit, GEICO Read More »

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Insurance — Property — Hurricane damage — Appraisal — Insurer did not waive right to appraisal by choosing to cover only part of loss claimed by insured or by abating original appraisal after being served with insured’s lawsuit — Insurer did not actively participate in lawsuit by moving to compel appraisal after suit was filed — Insurer did not engage in conduct inconsistent with right to appraisal by ordering appraiser to stop working on the appraisal when it was already a month into the process — Trial court erred in denying motion to compel appraisal

45 Fla. L. Weekly D2274a PEOPLE’S TRUST INSURANCE COMPANY, Appellant, v. FARUA PORTUONDO, Appellee. 3rd District. Case No. 3D20-266. L.T. Case No. 19-22640. October 7, 2020. An Appeal from a non-final order from the Circuit Court for Miami-Dade County, Jose M. Rodriguez, Judge. Counsel: Beck Law, P.A., and Joshua S. Beck (Boca Raton); Brett R. Read More »

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Torts — Premises liability — Slip and fall — Relief from judgment — Newly discovered evidence — Trial court erred in granting plaintiff’s motion for relief from judgment based on alleged newly discovered evidence that some of the medical records provided by plaintiff’s physician pursuant to a nonparty subpoena belonged to another patient with the same name — Plaintiff failed to meet his burden of establishing that, despite acting with due diligence, he was unable to discover the evidence until months after trial — Merely attesting that plaintiff did not learn of the error until after trial and that evidence was brought to his attention after trial hardly constitutes diligence or vigilance as required by law

45 Fla. L. Weekly D2244c NEAPOLITAN ENTERPRISES, LLC, Appellant, v. ALAN FISHMAN, Appellee. 2nd District. Case No. 2D19-4541. September 30, 2020. Appeal pursuant to Fla. R. App. P. 9.130 from the Circuit Court for Collier County; Lauren L. Brodie, Judge. Counsel: Mark D. Tinker of Cole, Scott & Kissane, P.A., Tampa, for Appellant. Mark Douthit Read More »

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