12 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 210c
Insurance — Personal injury protection — Coverage — Medical expenses — Exhaustion of policy limits — No error in dismissing cases where benefits were exhausted before suits were filed and medical provider did not allege or demonstrate that insurer conducted itself inappropriately in any way
PHYSICAL MEDICINE CENTER, (a/a/o Timothy Baitinger, Donald Jackson, Michelle Davison, and Thomas Dickson, and Mary Sommer), Appellant, v. PROGRESSIVE EXPRESS INSURANCE CO., Appellee. Circuit Court, 13th Judicial Circuit (Appellate) in and for Hillsborough County, Civil Appeals Division. Case Nos. 04-1790, 04-1796, 04-1798, 04-3082 & 04-4320, Division X. County Ct. Case Nos. 02-24666, 02-27002, 02-27006, 02-25351, 02-27594-SC. (Consolidated) November 19, 2004. Perry A. Little, Judge. Review of a final order of the County Ct., Hillsborough County. Counsel: Timothy A. Patrick, Tampa, for Appellant. Jeffrey R. Davis and David W. Molhem, Tampa, for Appellee.
In all the cases before this Court, personal injury protection benefits were exhausted before suit was ever filed. The record does not indicate that Appellant alleged or demonstrated that the insurer conducted itself inappropriately in any way, by, for example, paying benefits out of turn, picking and choosing payees, or otherwise conducting itself in bad faith.
In short, based upon the authority of Dicarlo & Assoc., v. American Home Assurance Co., 11 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 305; 2004 WL326746 (Fla. 13th Jud. Cir. January 20, 2004), and the more recently decided Gomez (a/a/o Brunet) v. Progressive Express Ins. Co., appeal no. 04-1792 (Fla. 13th Jud. Cir. Oct. 26, 2004), the decisions of the trial courts are AFFIRMED. (Battles and Stoddard, JJ., concur.)
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