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Month: November 2023

Appeals court backs homeowner in lawsuit against property insurer

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. read more

SpaceX sends up Space Coast’s 66th launch of the year

SpaceX sends up Space Coast’s 66th launch of the year

SpaceX chalked up another Starlink mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station to mark the Space Coast’s 66th launch of the year.

A Falcon 9 with 23 of the company’s Starlink internet satellites lifted off from Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 11:20 p.m. Monday.

The booster flew for the 17th time, the third time SpaceX has flown one of its boosters 17 times, although one has flown 18 missions. It landed safely on the droneship Just Read the Instructions downrange in the Atlantic.

This is the fourth month in a row the Space Coast has shoehorned in seven launches in a month, and the fifth time this year, although only the second time SpaceX has been responsible for all seven of those launches in one month.

SpaceX has flown 62 of the 66 Space Coast missions overall with Relativity Space making its lone launch of its Terran 1 3D-printed rocket back in March, and United Launch Alliance managing one Delta IV Heavy and two Atlas V rocket launches since June. read more