Lauren Farinas obtained summary judgment in a first-party property insurance case in Broward County. The plaintiff-homeowners alleged that MMP&S’s client insurance company breached the insurance policy by improperly denying coverage on their claim for damage to their property caused by Hurricane Ian. The insurance company asserted that they denied the claim because they were prejudiced due to the homeowner’s failure to timely report the loss. The insurance company asserted that the 16-month delay in reporting the claim was not prompt as required by the policy, which created a rebuttable presumption under the law that the insurance company was prejudiced. The plaintiff filed an affidavit of their expert to rebut the presumption of prejudice, where the expert concluded that Hurricane Ian caused the damage. We argued that the expert’s affidavit did not overcome the presumption of prejudice as the conclusory affidavit did not rule out any other potential storms or other causes of the damage. The court agreed that the claim was reported late, and the plaintiff’s expert affidavit did not overcome the presumption of prejudice. Therefore, the court entered summary judgment for the insurance company.

Practice Area: First-Party Property