Ian Alperstein, Isha Kumar, and Daniela Coy in our Boca Raton office obtained summary judgment in a first-party property insurance case in the County Court of the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit in Broward County, Florida. The plaintiff homeowner alleged that the defendant insurance company did not fully pay his insurance claim based on a roof leak.  The insurance company asserted that it fully paid the plaintiff through the pre-suit appraisal process, which is similar to an informal arbitration to resolve disputes over the value of an insurance claim.  The court agreed that the pre-suit appraisal properly resolved the dispute over the valuation of the insurance claim and the insurance company properly tendered amounts pursuant to the appraisal process. The plaintiff then asserted that various third-party contractors’ invoices were still unpaid.  The insurance company asserted the third-party contractors’ invoices were assigned away pursuant to assignments of insurance benefits and thus the plaintiff had no standing to recover for them.  The court agreed with the insurance company that the plaintiff had no standing to sue for invoices assigned to third-parties and noted the plaintiff was protected from any liability from said contractors due to the State’s Assignment of Benefits Reform statutes.  Thus, the court granted Summary Judgment in the favor of the property insurance company.

Practice Area: First-Party Property