Appeals court backs homeowner in lawsuit against property insurer
TALLAHASSEE — In an issue that might ultimately have to be sorted out by the Florida Supreme Court, an appeals court has sided with a Collier County homeowner in a dispute about a 2021 law that placed additional hurdles to filing lawsuits against property insurers.
The ruling last week by a panel of the 6th District Court of Appeal dealt with whether part of the law could apply to policies issued before the law took effect. The panel agreed with arguments by attorneys for homeowner Rebecca Hughes, whose home sustained water damage in 2019 but who did not file a lawsuit against Universal Property Insurance & Casualty Insurance Co. over the claim until August 2021, about a month after the law took effect.
The panel said the disputed part of the law, which requires homeowners to give a 10-day notice before filing lawsuits against property insurers, did not apply retroactively to policies issued earlier.
In doing so, however, the panel acknowledged that its ruling conflicted with a decision in May by the 4th District Court of Appeal in a Broward County case. The 6th District panel took a step known as certifying a conflict with the 4th District ruling, a move that could help send the issue to go to the Supreme Court.