Tiffany Bustamante and Nicole Connors | Cozen O’Connor
Introduction
The 2023 amendments to Florida Statute § 624.155, enacted through HB 837, significantly reshaped the landscape of bad faith litigation in Florida. Among the most consequential changes were the additions of two key provisions—§§ 624.1551 and 624.155(6)—both aimed at providing insurers with clearer procedural guidance and enhanced protections against bad faith liability.
Section 624.1551, enacted in December 2022, establishes a heightened threshold for pursuing bad faith claims against property insurers. It requires that before any claim for extracontractual damages can be filed, there must be an adverse adjudication by a court of law confirming that the property insurer breached the insurance contract, followed by a final judgment or decree against the insurer. This addition aims to prevent frivolous lawsuits and ensure that claims for extracontractual damages are substantiated by a court ruling.
While Section 624.1551 focuses on property insurance claims, the Legislature also introduced a separate reform aimed at liability claims involving multiple injured parties. Section 624.155(6), added in March 2023, addresses the issue of competing liability claims arising from a single occurrence that may exceed the available policy limits of one or more insured parties. It allows insurers to interplead insurance funds when faced with such competing liability claims, providing a straightforward mechanism for insurers to manage situations where multiple third-party claimants have claims that collectively exceed the policy limits, thereby reducing the risk of insurers being held liable beyond the available policy limits.
These legislative changes have sparked significant questions about how—and when—these new statutes apply, particularly in pending or unresolved claims. Florida courts are now beginning to weigh in on the retroactivity of these reforms and whether they apply to claims that arose before the statutes took effect.
A recent appellate decision, Cindy Vo v. Scottsdale Ins. Co., No. 1D2023-2228, 2025 Fla. App. LEXIS 1518 (1st DCA Feb. 26, 2025), is among the first to address this issue, finding section § 624.1551 does not apply to claims arising before its enactment. However, the decision leaves some open questions—most notably, whether its reasoning extends to § 624.155(6) and how that might interact with a policy’s effective date.
This article examines Vo as it relates to § 624.1551 and explores how its reasoning might impact insurers interpreting subsection § 624.155(6).
The Cindy Vo Decision: A Closer Look
In Vo, the insured filed a claim in September 2020 for damages caused by Hurricane Sally. Thereafter, Vo initially filed a breach of contract action against her property insurer in March 2021. She later filed a Civil Remedy Notice of Insurer Violations in May 2021, and an appraisal award was entered in her favor in July 2021. Vo voluntarily dismissed her breach of contract action in May 2022, and she filed her bad faith claim in March 2023. The trial court dismissed Vo’s bad faith action, ruling that § 624.1551 applied retroactively, requiring a contractual breach and not merely a favorable appraisal award, as a prerequisite to bad faith.
On appeal, the First District Court of Appeal reversed, holding that § 624.1551 was substantive, not merely remedial, and therefore did not apply retroactively to Vo’s claim. The Court applied the two-part test from Menendez v. Progressive Express Ins. Co., 35 So. 3d 873 (Fla. 2010) to determine that § 624.1551 could not be applied retroactively because, while the statute may accomplish a remedial purpose of reducing insurance premiums, it eliminated a previously valid cause of action created by the legislature. Consequently, retroactive application would impair vested rights and attach new legal consequences to completed events, which is impermissible under Florida law. The key reasoning was that the statute was enacted after Vo settled her breach of contract case.
How Might Vo Impact the Interpretation of § 624.155(6)?
Unlike § 624.1551, which applies specifically to property insurers, § 624.155(6) applies more broadly and allows insurers to avoid bad faith liability in multi-claimant situations by depositing policy limits into the court registry or making the policy limits available before a qualified arbitrator. Given Vo’s holding that § 624.1551 is substantive and therefore not retroactive, a few questions emerge:
Is § 624.155(6) Also Substantive?
Vo held that § 624.1551 is substantive because it changes the legal standard for bad faith claims by specifically removing a formerly valid cause of action, which would not only impair vested rights but also attach new legal consequences to completed events. Using the Vo Court’s reasoning, the question becomes: Is § 624.155(6) also substantive because it may eliminate a previously valid cause of action, impair vested rights, or attach new legal consequences to completed events?
One argument that § 624.155(6) is substantive and may apply only to bad faith claims accruing after its enactment is because it limits bad faith liability when interpleader is used. For instance, by allowing insurers to interplead insurance funds when faced with competing liability claims, it provides a mechanism that was not necessarily previously available, thereby altering the legal rights and remedies available to claimants.
The statute may also impair vested rights by changing the conditions under which an insurer can be held liable for bad faith. If claimants had a vested right to pursue bad faith claims under the previous legal framework, the introduction of § 624.155(6) could impair those rights by providing insurers with a new defense mechanism.
By allowing insurers to interplead funds or make them available before a qualified arbitrator, § 624.155(6) changes the dynamics of how claims are settled. This could be seen as substantive because it impacts the rights and expectations of policyholders and claimants who might have relied on the previous legal framework.
What is seemingly even more determinative is that insurers must move quickly, specifically “within 90 days after receiving notice of the competing claims in excess of the available policy limits.” This imposes a new procedural requirement that could be seen as substantive because it affects the insurer’s obligations and potential liability.
Does the Policy’s Effective Date Matter for § 624.155(6)?
Another potential argument is that an insurance policy issued before the enactment of § 624.155(6) should not be subject to its provisions. However, this position arguably misunderstands how statutory changes typically operate in the context of bad faith claims. Bad faith claims are separate from breach of contract claims and do not arise until there is an alleged failure to settle within policy limits. One could argue, for instance, that interpleader and/or bad faith are not rights afforded under the insurance contract itself. Therefore, what should matter in analyzing whether § 624.155(6) applies is when the bad faith claim accrued—not when the policy was issued. If the bad faith claim vested after the statute’s effective date, then § 624.155(6) should apply, regardless of when the policy was written.
When Did Vo’s Bad Faith Claim Vest?
As a final inquiry, when did Vo’s bad faith claim vest? Historically, cases have said that a bad faith action accrues after there has been a determination of liability on the breach of contract and a determination of damages. In the Vo case, an argument raised at the trial court level—but not explicitly addressed on appeal—was when Vo’s bad faith claim actually vested. She argued that her bad faith claim vested in 2021, when the appraisal award was entered, not when she settled her breach of contract case. The appellate decision did not squarely address when the cause of action vested, instead anchoring its retroactivity analysis on the fact that the statute was enacted after the parties resolved the underlying contract dispute. Because the District Court found that § 624.1551 could not be applied retroactively, it seemingly agreed with Vo that her bad faith claim vested when the appraisal award was entered, or perhaps the Court simply identified the latest in time “completed event.”
How Should Insurers Approach § 624.155(6) in Light of Vo?
Insurers should assume that courts may find § 624.155(6) is substantive, requiring careful analysis of each factual situation. Certainly, however, in cases where policy limits are exhausted across multiple claimants, insurers should consider as soon as possible, either depositing the policy limits into the court registry or making the policy limits available before a qualified arbitrator—ensuring compliance with § 624.155(6) in applicable cases.
The Cindy Vo decision reinforces that courts will closely scrutinize whether new statutes affecting bad faith claims are substantive or procedural, impacting their retroactivity. As the law continues to evolve, insurers navigating Florida’s new statutory framework should exercise caution and be prepared to litigate unresolved questions regarding the interplay between appraisal, interpleader, and the new statutory safe harbors. Future decisions will likely clarify these and other issues, but for now, insurers must carefully evaluate their approach to the options afforded in § 624.155(6) and in formulating bad faith defenses under the evolving statutory framework.
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