Matthew Lewis | PropertyCasualtyFocus
The Florida Third District Court of Appeal recently ruled that an insurer did not waive its right to appraisal after choosing to cover only part of a property damage loss claimed by its insured. The case, People’s Tr. Ins. Co. v. Farua Portuondo, No. 3D20-266 (Fla. 3d DCA Oct. 7, 2020), involved a property damage claim regarding alleged damage sustained to the insured’s home following Hurricane Irma in September 2017.
In December 2018, Farua Portuondo first reported roof and interior damage to his property insurance carrier, People’s Trust Insurance Company (“People’s Trust”). Following an inspection of the purported damage, People’s Trust agreed to cover only the interior damage and not the claim for roof damage.
On July 30, 2019, Portuondo filed suit against People’s Trust based on the insurer’s denial of coverage related to the roof damage claim. On August 26, 2019, People’s Trust demanded appraisal, as allowed under its policy with Portuondo, and proceeded with the appraisal process.
On September 16, 2019, People’s Trust was served with the lawsuit filed by Portuondo. Following service of the lawsuit, People’s Trust halted the appraisal process and filed a motion to compel appraisal, along with several other motions to compel related to the claim. The trial court denied the motion to compel appraisal. As such, People’s Trust appealed the ruling to the Third District Court of Appeals.
The district court reviewed the transcript of the hearing from the trial court and determined that the motion to compel appraisal was denied by the lower court because People’s Trust only provided partial coverage to the Portuondo claim. In support of the denial of the motion to compel appraisal, Portuondo had argued that People’s Trust waived its right to appraisal by choosing to cover only part of the loss.
The district court disagreed with Portuondo’s argument, holding that a motion to compel appraisal should be granted when an insurer has agreed to repair a covered loss, but the parties disagreed as to the scope of the repairs. The district court cited to a case it decided earlier in 2020, Baptiste v. People’s Tr. Ins. Co., 299 So. 3d 1148 (Fla. 3d DCA 2020), which involved the same policy language in a similar situation where the insurer and insured disagreed on the “amount of loss” and “scope of repairs.” Because People’s Trust did not wholly deny coverage for Portuondo’s claim, the district court held that the trial court should have granted the motion to compel appraisal as allowed under the policy.
In addition, the district court rejected arguments made by Portuondo that People’s Trust waived its right to appraisal by abating the original appraisal and filing the motion to compel with the trial court. Because People’s Trust did not “actively” participate in the lawsuit or engage in conduct inconsistent with its right to appraisal, the district court held that People’s Trust did not waive its right to appraisal. Once People’s Trust received service of the lawsuit, it merely paused appraisal and sought an order from the trial court to require the parties to go through the appraisal process.
The district court reversed the order of the trial court and remanded back to the trial court with instructions to grant the motion to compel appraisal.