2019

44 Fla. L. Weekly D269a

NOT FINAL VERSION OF OPINION
Subsequent Changes at 44 Fla. L. Weekly D766a

Torts — Legal malpractice — Insurance carrier — Privity — Law firm hired by insurer to defend insured against liability claims — Insurer lacked standing to sue law firm where nothing in evidence indicates that law firm was in privity with insurer or that insurer was an intended third-party beneficiary — Public policy does not dictate that an insurer should be able to pursue legal malpractice claims against defense counsel it retains to represent its insureds and the court is unwilling to expand field of privity exceptions

44 Fla. L. Weekly D766a
266 So. 3d 1210

Torts — Legal malpractice — Standing — Insurance carrier — Question certified: Whether an insurer has standing to maintain a malpractice action against counsel hired to represent the insured where the insurer has a duty to defend

44 Fla. L. Weekly D1223b
275 So. 3d 688

Insurance — Attorney’s fees — Proposal for settlement — Court properly awarded insurer attorney’s fees as prevailing insurer pursuant to proposal for settlement — Insured’s separate count for declaratory relief was not a claim for purely equitable relief that invalidated insurer’s proposal for settlement because the real issue in the case was claim for breach of contract and money damages — Insurer is entitled to attorney’s fees incurred and actually paid or payable to its attorneys from service of the proposal for settlement through date of order granting entitlement to fees

44 Fla. L. Weekly D1102a
269 So. 3d 653

Attorney’s fees — Proposal for settlement — Service no earlier than 90 days after commencement of action — Insurance — Homeowners — Sinkhole claims — Alternative dispute resolution — Stay of court proceedings against insurer under section 627.7074(10) pending neutral evaluation of claim did not stay 90-day waiting period for serving of proposal for settlement — Because insurer served insureds with its proposal more than 90 days after insureds filed suit against it, trial court erred in striking proposal as premature

44 Fla. L. Weekly D2749a
284 So. 3d 1081

Attorney’s fees — Proposal for settlement — No error in awarding fees to plaintiff who obtained judgment in excess of 25% of offer of settlement rejected by defendant after finding that offer was not ambiguous — Defendant’s claim that offer was illusory was essentially a claim that offer was not made in good faith that should have been raised in trial court, and there was no showing that issue was one of fundamental error — No error in joining defendant’s insurer in attorney’s fees and cost judgment

44 Fla. L. Weekly D15a
264 So. 3d 217

Insurance — Attorney’s fees — Circuit court acting in its appellate capacity correctly denied motion for attorney’s fees where plaintiff did not prevail on appeal and is therefore not entitled to fees under section 627.428 as a matter of law

44 Fla. L. Weekly D2516b

NOT FINAL VERSION OF OPINION
Subsequent Changes at 43 Fla. L. Weekly D2563a

Attorney’s fees — Insurance — Insolvent insurers — Florida Insurance Guaranty Association — Sinkhole claims — Affirmative denial of covered claim — Trial court erred in concluding that FIGA’s denial of claim did not constitute an affirmative denial of a “covered claim” because there was no scientific evidence of sinkhole activity at time of denial — Trial court misconstrued holding in Miller v. Florida Insurance Guaranty Assn. when it ruled that fees insured spent on testing for sinkhole loss were excluded under definition of “covered claim” in section 631.54(3)(c) — Based on clear language in Miller, insured was entitled to attorney’s fees related to enforcement of policy itself, regardless of fact that intermittent testing occurred during litigation and insured’s effort to enforce the policy — Costs — Party recovering judgment — Confession of judgment — Where FIGA ultimately admitted coverage and paid claim, insured was entitled to recovery of costs under section 57.041, even though insured did not obtain a judgment against FIGA

44 Fla. L. Weekly D1656d
275 So. 3d 775
Insurance — Attorney’s fees — Charging lien — Action arising out of insurer’s disbursement of settlement check prior to the resolution of a charging lien perfected by claimant’s former law firm — No error in finding insurer negligent and liable for failing to protect former law firm’s charging lien — Insurer, as the paying party, had an affirmative duty to protect former law firm’s lien interest in the settlement proceeds by notifying former law firm of the settlement, including former law firm on the settlement check or obtaining a waiver of the lien in writing, or obtaining a hold harmless agreement from claimant’s current law firm to which the settlement check was sent

44 Fla. L. Weekly D730b
266 So. 3d 278

Insurance — Appeals — Attorney’s fees — Order on appeal is not a final, appealable order, and appellee’s motion for attorney’s fees based on section 627.428 is provisionally granted — In event appellee prevails before trial court, entitlement and amount of fees assessed shall be determined pursuant to the statute

44 Fla. L. Weekly D1969a
276 So. 3d 822

Insurance — Property — Insured’s action against insurer seeking declaration of rights under policy — Standing — Assignment to company that performed emergency water mitigation services — Scope of assignment — Considering language of assignment as a whole, it was unambiguous intent of parties to limit scope of assignment to the work performed, rather than all of the rights under the insurance policy — Summary judgment in favor of insurer was based on erroneous construction of assignment contract