One of my New Year’s resolutions for 2015 is to post more regularly to this blog. It was a very busy 2014, especially the second half of the year, and I have not been able to provide updates as frequently as I would like. So before we ring in the new year, let’s review some …
I still need to catch up on several important Florida coverage decisions from this summer, but I could not wait to discuss this new coverage opinion out of the Third District Court of Appeal in Miami. The case is Geico General Ins. Co. v. Rodriguez, Nos. 3D11-2905 & 3D12-506 (Fla. 3rd DCA Sept. 10, 2014), …
It may have seemed like déjà vu for the Eleventh Circuit to get another coverage dispute over junk faxes. But that is just what happened in Interline Brands, Inc. v. Chartis Specialty Insurance Co., No. 13-10025 (11th Cir. Apr. 15, 2014). The Eleventh Circuit had previously certified to the Florida Supreme Court a question regarding …
I have written about the insurance law concept of “trigger” several times before, most recently in the context of the Middle District of Florida’s decision in Axis Surplus Insurance Co. v. Contravest Construction Co., 921 F. Supp.2d 1338 (M.D. Fla. 2012). An Insurance Law Florida reader from Colorado recently asked for an update on Florida …
The recent news that Colorado State University plans to shut down Professor Emeritus William Gray’s hurricane predicting center should not come as a surprise. The center has for many years been funded by the insurance industry and served its purpose of whipping the press into a frenzy so that the insurance industry could rake in billions of …
I know “other insurance” issues can be esoteric, but they are also increasingly important to insurance disputes. They are so important that I did a CLE presentation recently that focused almost exclusively on the impact of the “other insurance” clause on deductibles and self-insured retentions (program materials can be found here). The “other insurance” clause …
Last March I wrote about the 11th Circuit’s decision in Ruderman v. Washington National Insurance Corp., No. 10-14714 (11th Cir. Feb. 17, 2012) (appeal of docket No. 1:08-cv-234011-JIC), in which the court certified to the Florida Supreme Court the question of whether an ambiguous insurance policy provision is automatically construed against an insurer or whether the insurer can …
It has been a quiet period for insurance coverage opinions in Florida. Today I want to discuss an important decision from the Florida Supreme Court that did not involve a coverage dispute but will have an impact on coverage and indemnity disputes going forward. The case is First Baptist Church of Cape Coral, Florida, Inc., …
In University of Miami v. Great American Assurance Company, No. 3D09-2010 (Fla. 3d. DCA Feb. 20, 2013), the Third DCA held that an insurance company had to pay for separate and independent defense counsel to defend its additional insured. The coverage dispute arose out of a tragic incident in which a four-year-old child suffered severe injuries …
It took the Florida Supreme Court two years after oral argument to come to its senses and reaffirm the right of Florida policyholders to sue their insurance brokers for negligence. The Court’s decision in Tiara Condominium Association, Inc., etc. v. Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc., et al., No. SC10-1022 (March 7, 2013) is groundbreaking in several …