28 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 453b
Online Reference: FLWSUPP 2806REVOInsurance — Personal injury protection — Summary judgment — Error to reject affidavit of expert on reasonableness of charges and relatedness and medical necessity of treatment
STATE FARM MUTUAL AUTOMOBILE INSURANCE COMPANY, Appellant, v. GABLES INSURANCE RECOVERY, INC., a/a/o Alexis Revollo, Appellee. Circuit Court, 11th Judicial Circuit (Appellate) in and for Miami-Dade County. Case No. 2017-000158-AP-01. L.T. Case No. 2013-3539-SP-26. August 13, 2020. On Appeal from the County Court in and for Miami-Dade County, Florida, Hon. Lawrence D. King, County Court Judge. Counsel: Nancy W. Gregoire, Birnbaum, Lippman & Gregoire, PLLC and Christopher L. Kirwan, Kirwan, Spellacy & Danner, P.A., for Appellant. G. Bart Billbrough, Billbrough & Marks, P.A., for Appellee.
(Before WALSH, TRAWICK, and SANTOVENIA, JJ.)
OPINION
(PER CURIAM.) State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (“State Farm”) appeals a final judgment entered by the trial court following its order granting summary judgment on behalf of Gables Insurance Recovery, Inc. (“Provider”). Here, the trial court rejected the conflicting affidavits offered by State Farm of Michael W. Mathesie, D.C., a chiropractor and Edward A. Dauer, M.D., a radiologist regarding reasonableness, relatedness and medical necessity and summary judgment was granted on the Provider’s Motion for Summary Judgment.
As this panel and the majority of prior panels from this Court have found, it was an abuse of discretion to accept Plaintiff/Appellee’s affidavits while rejecting State Farm’s conflicting affidavits on whether the medical bills at issue were reasonable in price, related and medically necessary. Taking State Farm’s affidavits into account, it was error to grant summary judgment on behalf of the Provider as the affidavits were sufficient to raise disputed issues of material fact precluding summary judgment. See United Auto. Ins. Co. v. Miami-Dade MRI a/a/o Bermudez, 2018-164 (Fla. 11th Cir. Ct. June 3, 2020) [28 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 299a]; State Farm Mutual Ins. Co. v. Gables Insurance Recovery a/a/o Yuderis Rego, 27 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 860a (Fla. 11th Cir. Ct. Nov. 20, 2019); United Automobile Insurance Co. v. Open MRI of Miami Dade, Ltd. a/a/o Rosa Castillo, Case No. 2017-326-AP-01 (Fla. 11th Cir Ct. Nov. 6, 2019) [27 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 791b]; United Automobile Insurance Co. v. Miami Dade County MRI, Corp. a/a/o Marta Figueredo, 27 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 506b (Fla. 11th Cir. App. July 30, 2019); United Automobile Insurance Co. v. Miami Dade County MRI, Corp. a/a/o Javier Rodriguez, 27 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 225c (Fla. 11th Cir. Ct. July 25, 2019); United Automobile Insurance Co. v. Miami Dade County MRI, Corp. a/a/o Rene Dechard, 27 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 226a (Fla. 11th Cir. Ct., August 12, 2019); United Automobile Insurance Co. v. Millennium Radiology, LLC a/a/o Javier Rodriguez, 25 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 911b (Fla. 11th Cir. Ct. July 19, 2019).
Accordingly, the summary judgment and final judgment entered below are hereby REVERSED, and this cause is REMANDED to the trial court.
Appellee’s Motion for Attorney’s Fees is DENIED. Appellant’s Motion for Attorney’s Fees is conditionally GRANTED (conditioned upon Appellant ultimately prevailing and the enforceability of the proposal for settlement) and REMANDED to the trial court to fix the amount.
