Cases
Experiences: Representative Appellate Cases: State Farm Auto. Ins. Co. v. Lightfoot, 346 So. 3d 636 (Fla. 1st DCA 2022), cert. denied, No. SC22-1352, 2023 WL 180067 (Fla. Jan. 13, 2023) - reversing a $1.4 million fee award under a proposal for settlement on the grounds that the Proposal for Settlement was illusory
not made in good faith where it required actual tender of payment of $1.3 million within thirty days in order to accept it
where the plaintiff had no good-faith belief that the offeree was financially able to comply with that condition.
Kilgore v. Mosher, 28 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 215 (Fla. 4th Jud. Cir. Apr. 28, 2020), aff'd, 336 So. 3d 1185 (Fla. 1st DCA 2022) (table) - holding that a trial court may not utilize the Nonjoinder Statute to add an insurer to a fee judgment if the insurer disputes coverage for fee awards
, in any event, fee awards do not incur 'expenses incurred at our request' when awarded pursuant to a proposal for settlement exceeding the amount of coverage.
State Farm Fire & Cas. Ins. Co. v. Wilson, 330 So. 3d 67 (Fla. 2d DCA 2021) - reversing a judgment for underinsured-motorist coverage premised upon an alleged discrepancy between language in the signed form rejecting stacking coverage
a policy exclusion, holding instead that the form's language is deemed adequate if previously approved by the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation.
Holliday v. Markel Syndicate 3000 at Underwriters at Lloyds, London, 791 Fed. App'x 891 (11th Cir. 2020) - Affirming the dismissal of a pro se action on limitations grounds.
Klein v. Avatar Prop. & Cas. Ins. Co., 252 So.3d 1187 (Fla. 2d DCA 2018) (table) - affirming per curiam a trial court's summary judgment for an insurer where the insureds refused to appear for an examination under oath.
State Farm Auto. Ins. Co. v. Lyde, 267 So. 3d 453 (Fla. 2d DCA 2018) - reversing a trial court's judgment affording UM coverage under a policy containing an 'other owned vehicle' exclusion where the injured party had rejected UM coverage
tried to obtain it through another household member's policy, which carried only non-stacking UM coverage.
Higgins v. W. Bend Mut. Ins. Co ., 85 So. 3d 1156 (Fla. 5th DCA 2012) - affirming summary judgment for an insurer against Minnesota plaintiffs attempting to invoke Florida law to assert a bad-faith claim against a Wisconsin-based insurer.
W. Bend Mut. Ins. Co. v. Higgins, 9 So. 3d 655 (Fla. 5th DCA 2009) - certiorari quashing a trial-court order that required disclosure of an insurer's post-judgment communications with its counsel.
Representative Trial-Court Cases: Bayfront Cent. Sec. & Sys., Inc. v. N.Y. Cent. Mut. Ins. Co., 17 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 181a (Fla. 6th Cir. Ct. 2010) - order dismissing the multi-count complaint against New York automobile insurer for lack of personal jurisdiction.
Bayshore TBI, Inc. v. MemberSelect Ins. Co., 28 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. D 35 (M.D. Fla. 2019) - order staying a Michigan No-Fault action under the Colorado River abstention doctrine in deference to an earlier-filed case pending in Michigan.
Bele v. 21st Century Centennial Ins. Co., 25 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. D193a (M.D. Fla. 2015) - order denying motion to rem
where Plaintiffs contended that the amount-in-controversy requirement had not been proven.
Bele v. 21st Century Centennial Ins. Co., 126 F. Supp. 3d 1293 (M.D. Fla. 2015) - order dismissing an unripe bad-faith action
a declaratory-judgment claim seeking to fix damages in the bad-faith claim, both of which were joined to a claim for UM coverage.
Bennett v. 21st Century Sec. Ins. Co., No. 2013-CA-012378-O, 2016 WL 4398685 (Fla. 9th Cir. Ct. Aug. 17, 2016) - summary judgment entered for insurer where underlying action was dismissed with prejudice pursuant to a joint stipulation for dismissal.
Betzoldt v. Auto Club Group Ins. Co., 26 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 385a (Fla. 13th Cir. Ct. 2018) - order entering summary judgment on a plaintiff's vicarious-liability claim
rejecting the plaintiff's argument that an insurance company is vicariously liable for the legal malpractice of a law firm retained to represent its insured.
Bollinger v. State Farm Mut. Auto Ins. Co., 23 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. D159 (S.D. Fla. 2012), aff'd, 538 Fed. App'x. 857 (11th Cir. 2013) - summary judgment entered
affirmed in first-party bad-faith action where the plaintiff had not filed a Civil Remedy Notice.
Borrego v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 24 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. D350a (S.D. Fla. 2014) - order dismissing a spousal-derivative bad-faith action where Civil Remedy Notice was silent as to the spousal claim.
Holliday v. Lloyd's, Underwriters at, London, No. 8:17-cv-2063-T-33AEP, 2017 WL 6624160 (M.D. Fla. Dec. 28, 2017) - order dismissing pro se litigant's claim against 'Lloyd's, Underwriters at, London' on the ground that such is not a legal entity capable of being sued.
Holliday v. Syndicate 3000 at Lloyd's, Underwriters at, London, 27 Fla. Weekly Fed. D169a (M.D. Fla. 2018) - order dismissing claim for malicious prosecution as barred by the statute of limitations.
Holliday v. Syndicate 3000 at Lloyd's, Underwriters at, London, 28 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. D 35 (M.D. Fla. May 15, 2018) - order dismissing pro se litigant's claim for inadequate service of process.
Johnson v. State Farm Mut. Auto Ins. Co., 26 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. D6a (M.D. Fla. 2016) -order denying rem
of a removed bad-faith action appended to a UM case.
King v. Germania Select Ins. Co., 29 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. D171a (M.D. Fla. 2023) - order denying a motion to rem
the case where the plaintiff disputed that the amount in controversy exceeded the $75,000 statutory threshold
sent a dem
for $74,500 on the same day as the motion to rem
.
Mathurin v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 285 F. Supp. 3d 1311 (M.D. Fla. 2018) - order dismissing first-party bad-faith claim on the ground that the Civil Remedy Notice attached to the Complaint listed a policy number corresponding to a different insurance policy than the one that was the subject of the claim for bad faith.
Quirantes v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 29 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. D55a (S.D. Fla. 2021) - order entering partial summary judgment for a carrier that covered more than one vehicle in the same accident, holding that the carrier did not owe one insured a duty to tender the bodily injury liability limits under another insured's policy.
Signature Flight Support v. Lan Chile Airlines - award for the defendant in an international arbitration regarding the cause of a December 1, 1998 aircraft-wing fire that began under a fuel truck's cab
quickly spread to the wing of a Boeing-747.
Smith v. 21st Century Centennial Ins. Co., 25 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. D52 (M.D. Fla. 2014) - dismissing a declaratory judgment action seeking to fix damages for an unripe bad-faith action
abating the unripe bad-faith action.
State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co. v. Hurley, __ F. Supp. 3d __, 2025 WL 601216 (N.D. Fla. 2025) - order entering summary judgment for an insurer, holding that it had no duty to defend or indemnify its insured under an automobile-insurance policy against a passenger's suit alleging that the passenger was shot by a third party in a road-rage incident (see Elizabeth Daley, Auto Insurer Freed From Covering Gunshot Injury Litigation, Law360 (Feb. 26, 2025))
State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. v. Lampila, 30 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. D13a, 2023 WL 6123755 (M.D. Fla. 2023) - summary declaratory judgment holding that, under a mounted-equipment exclusion, an insurer was not required to defend or indemnify the operator of a truck against a negligence action brought by a man who claimed to have slipped
fallen on fluid that leaked from a concrete pump mounted on the insured vehicle.
Swanson v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., Case No. 6:19-cv-422-Orl-31-DCI, 2019 WL 1763244 (M.D. Fla. Apr. 22, 2019) - order dismissing a complaint that sought to assert a claim for the 'willful tort of bad faith,' agreeing with State Farm's argument that Florida law does not recognize such a cause of action.
Thoermer v. State Farm Fire & Cas. Co., 32 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 418a, 2024 WL 5115542 (Fla. 17th Jud. Cir. 2024) - order entering summary judgment for the insurer on a claim for underinsured-motorist benefits, where the accident took place on a recently purchased motorcycle as to which no insurance had been purchased
the plaintiff sought UM coverage under a policy issued to a resident relative, who had rejected the stacking form of UM coverage
Thorne v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 25 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. D117a (M.D. Fla. 2015) - order denying a motion to rem
an unripe bad-faith action asserted prior to the resolution of the underlying action for uninsured-motorist benefits.
Thorne v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 25 Fla L. Weekly Fed. D116a (M.D. Fla. 2015) - order dismissing an unripe bad-faith action brought before resolution of the underlying action for UM benefits.
