Plus rulings on mold, AOBs, and sabotage
A Florida appellate court confirms that presuit notices do apply retroactively, while another court rules that contractors can’t use a generic price list in place of a bona fide estimate, a South Florida woman wins a multi-million dollar mold suit, and an insurance defense lawyer is sanctioned for trying to sabotage his own case. It’s all in this week’s Legal Briefs.
Presuit Notices: Florida’s Fourth District Court of Appeal has upheld a trial court decision, ruling that the 10-day presuit notice requirement passed under the Florida Legislature’s 2021 reforms (SB 76) is retroactive. The homeowner and their attorney filed suit in Herman Cole v. Universal Property & Casualty Company one month after the law took effect on July 1, 2021, later arguing that the presuit notice didn’t apply because the policy was in effect prior to that date. So any lawsuit filed after the statute became effective is indeed subject to the new law regardless of the policy’s issue date.
Estimate Please: Florida’s Third District Court of Appeal has also upheld an important trial court decision in ruling that a generic price list from a repair contractor under an Assignments of Benefits (AOB) contract is not a per-unit cost estimate as required under the Florida Legislature’s 2019 reforms (HB 7065). Citizens Property Insurance had filed to dismiss the case against Total Care Restoration when its estimate failed to actually itemize the proposed repairs to a policyholder’s home. You can read more about this and other case updates in Kelley Kronenberg’s First-Party Property Appellate Division’s “In The Know” latest monthly newsletter.
Mold Award: Apartment resident Cheryl Jakab of Pompano Beach was awarded $5.5 million for damages she suffered from water intrusion and mold that she blamed for the death of her domestic partner. A Broward County jury found that her apartment co-op association at Ever April Apartments failed to fix water leaks from exterior walls, despite numerous repair requests and a mold testing report that her lawsuit said found “significant airborne concentrations of harmful mold spores.”
Attorney Sabotage: The Insurance Journal last week reported on the fascinating story of a defense attorney with one of Florida’s largest insurance defense practices being hit with $100,000 in sanctions. The Sixth District Court of Appeal has upheld an Orlando Circuit Court which originally issued the sanctions in 2021 after finding that attorney Jennings Hurt deliberately tried to sabotage a medical malpractice suit in an effort to have a mistrial declared. The article suggests Hurt, a shareholder with Rissman, Barrett, Hurt, Donahue, McLain & Mangan, could face potential disciplinary action by the Florida Bar.
LMA Newsletter of 5-22-23
