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Insurance — Homeowners — Water damage — Coverage — Conditions precedent — Post-loss obligations — Notice of loss — Prompt notice — Waiver — Civil procedure — Summary judgment — Trial court erroneously determined that, as matter of law, insurer’s acknowledgment of coverage and payment of claim for interior damage caused by roof leak constituted a waiver of further compliance with policy’s conditions precedent, including requirement that insureds provide prompt notice of loss — Under rule 1.110(a), insureds were required to specifically plead waiver as an avoidance of insurer’s lack of prompt notice defense before raising waiver as a basis for granting partial summary judgment in their favor — Insureds’ argument that waiver issue was tried by consent during summary judgment proceedings is misplaced where insurer specifically argued in its response to summary judgment motion that trial court should not consider the waiver argument because insureds never raised the argument in a timely reply to universal’s answer — New trial required

50 Fla. L. Weekly D889a UNIVERSAL PROPERTY & CASUALTY INSURANCE COMPANY, Appellant, v. THOMAS J. YAGER and DEBORAH JO YAGER, Appellees. 4th District. Case No. 4D2023-2310. April 16, 2025. Appeal from the Circuit Court for the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit, Broward County; Daniel A. Casey, Judge; L.T. Case No. CACE21-002362. Counsel: Kara Rockenbach Link and David Read More »

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Insurance — Homeowners — All-risk policy — Coverage — Burden of proof — Verdict forms — Trial court abused its discretion by using special verdict form which asked whether insureds had proven by greater weight of the evidence that insureds requested confirmation of coverage and payment for damages, that insurer failed to confirm coverage within required time period, and that insurer had “refused to honor its obligations” under all-risks policy — A plaintiff seeking to recover under an all-risks policy has burden of proving that a loss occurred to insured’s property while policy was in effect — Once a loss within policy period is established, the burden shifts to insurer to prove that loss was excluded from coverage

50 Fla. L. Weekly D820b JEFFREY VASTA and JULIA VASTA, Appellants, v. UNIVERSAL PROPERTY & CASUALTY INSURANCE COMPANY, Appellee. 2nd District. Case No. 2D2023-1915. April 9, 2025. Appeal from the Circuit Court for Pinellas County; Thomas Ramsberger, Judge. Counsel: Matthew Struble of Struble, P.A., Indialantic, for Appellants. David A. Noel and Kara Rockenbach Link of Read More »

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Insurance — Property — Water damage — Coverage — Limits of liability — Sewer line backup — No error in granting summary judgment in favor of insurer based on finding that insurer had fulfilled its obligations under policy by paying insureds $10,000 — Insurer was not required to pay for entirety of loss where plain language of the policy excluded any direct or indirect coverage for damage caused by “water, water-borne material, sewage or any other substance on or below the surface of the ground, regardless of its source,” and the limited water damage endorsement only extended $10,000 of coverage for such damage — Court rejects argument that policy exclusion did not apply to damage insureds suffered from their plumbing system because source of water did not come from an outside source — Policy language, which excludes water below the ground that seeps or leaks into property “regardless of its source,” made source of water irrelevant and necessarily included sewage water in ground coming from deteriorated plumbing system backup — Insureds were not entitled to tear-out costs where plain reading of policy makes clear that tear-out coverage was only included as part of water damage that is not otherwise excluded

50 Fla. L. Weekly D830a JEREMY KOSS, et al., Appellants, v. FLORIDA INSURANCE GUARANTY ASSOCIATION, etc., Appellee. 3rd District. Case No. 3D21-1904. L.T. Case No. 20-16439. April 9, 2025. An Appeal from the Circuit Court for Miami-Dade County, Reemberto Diaz, Judge. Counsel: Rodriguez Tramont & Núñez, P.A., and Paulino A. Núñez, Jr., and Frank R. Read More »

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Contracts — Discovery — Depositions — Opposing counsel — Appeals — Certiorari — Trial court departed from essential requirements of the law by ordering counsel for plaintiff to sit for deposition and produce documents that plaintiff had objected to in a prior discovery request — Defendants failed to satisfy Shelton criteria — Other less intrusive means existed to obtain information sought where there were between three to eight other individuals likely to have relevant information and no attempt was made to set plaintiff’s objections to discovery for hearing — Additionally, the questions to be asked about counsel’s participation in negotiating and executing contract at issue in underlying case were likely to elicit testimony about counsel’s mental impressions, litigation strategy, and privileged communications

50 Fla. L. Weekly D757a MICHAEL PULWER, et al., Petitioners, v. ASANTE SAMUEL AND MAKIN MOVES 22, LLC, Respondents. 3rd District. Case No. 3D24-1941. L.T. Case No. 23-16940-CA-01. April 2, 2025. A Writ of Certiorari to the Circuit Court for Miami-Dade County, Beatrice Butchko Sanchez, Judge. Counsel: The Law Offices of Kent Harrison Robbins, P.A., Read More »

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Attorney’s fees — Charging lien — Quantum meruit — Summary judgment — Disbursement of funds — Portion of summary judgment order directing immediate disbursement of funds being held in trust is stricken where attorney’s quantum meruit claim remains pending

50 Fla. L. Weekly D745g THE LAW OFFICES OF KEVIN C. AMBLER, P.A., d/b/a AMBLER LAW GROUP, Appellant, v. BAYFRONT SAME DAY SURGERY CENTER, LLC; BAYFRONT ANESTHESIA SERVICES, P.A.; BAYFRONT MEDICAL CENTER, INC.; MICHAEL J. ANTONELLI, D.O.; JEFFREY I. MARDER, M.D.; ROBERT LYNN SWYMER, CRNA; TRINA LEANNE ANTONELLI, CRNA; SANG HEE LEE, CRNA; MARIA S. Read More »

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