Heritage Property & Casualty Insurance Company v. Fairway Oaks, Inc.
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
Date FiledApril 22, 2022
Docket2D21-0793
StatusPublished
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Full Opinion
DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL OF FLORIDA
SECOND DISTRICT
HERITAGE PROPERTY & CASUALTY INSURANCE COMPANY,
Appellant,
v.
FAIRWAY OAKS, INC.,
Appellee.
No. 2D21-793
April 22, 2022
Appeal from the Circuit Court for Collier County; Hugh D. Hayes,
Judge.
David A. Noel and Kara Rockenbach-Link of Link & Rockenbach,
P.A., West Palm Beach; and Jeffrey A. Rubinton and Veronica
Dossat of Rubinton & Associates, P.A., Tampa, for Appellant.
Sanjay Kurian and Benjamin T. Johnson of Becker & Poliakoff, P.A.,
Tampa, for Appellee.
LUCAS, Judge.
Heritage Property & Casualty Insurance Company (Heritage)
appeals the circuit court's order compelling it to participate in an
appraisal under its insurance policy with Fairway Oaks, Inc.
(Fairway Oaks), a condominium association. Because the facts and
arguments in this appeal essentially mirror what we recently
addressed in Heritage Property & Casualty Insurance Co. v. Veranda
I at Heritage Links Ass'n, 47 Fla. L. Weekly D513 (Fla. 2d DCA Feb.
25, 2022), we reverse the order below. Like the condominium
association in Veranda, Fairway Oaks submitted a claim to its
insurer, Heritage, due to roof damage sustained from Hurricane
Irma. Like in Veranda, Fairway Oaks later submitted a
supplemental claim for window and door damages it claimed had
also been caused by the hurricane.1 And, like in Veranda, Heritage
eventually paid the roof claim but denied coverage as to the
supplemental claim.
The circuit court granted Fairway Oaks' motion to compel
appraisal, and Heritage filed this timely appeal.
In Veranda, 47 Fla. L. Weekly at D514, we concluded that
[b]ecause Veranda's claim for windows and doors was a
supplemental claim for coverage, [American Coastal
Insurance Co. v. Ironwood, Inc., 330 So. 3d 570, 573 (Fla.
2d DCA 2021),] instructs that we must consider that
1 The pertinent policy language we are asked to construe is
identical to the language that was at issue in Veranda.
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claim separately from the initial roof claim that had been
fully adjusted. And since Heritage wholly denied
coverage for that supplemental claim, [Johnson v.
Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co., 828 So. 2d 1021, 1022
(Fla. 2002),] and its progeny precluded the trial court
from referring it to appraisal.
The same result obtains here. We therefore reverse the order
compelling appraisal of Fairway Oaks' supplemental claim and
remand for further proceedings.
Reversed and remanded.
BLACK and ATKINSON, JJ., Concur.
Opinion subject to revision prior to official publication.
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