Water Restoration Guys, Inc. v. Citizens Prop. Ins. Corp.

• Court: Florida District Court of Appeals
• Writing for the Court: BOKOR, J.
• Citation: Water Restoration Guys, Inc. v. Citizens Prop. Ins. Corp., 347 So.3d 449 (Fla. App. 2022)
• Decision Date: 20 July 2022
• Docket Number: 3D21-0653
• Parties: WATER RESTORATION GUYS, INC., a/a/o Felisa Sanchez, Appellant, v. CITIZENS PROPERTY INSURANCE CORPORATION, Appellee.

347 So.3d 449

WATER RESTORATION GUYS, INC., a/a/o Felisa Sanchez, Appellant,

v.CITIZENS PROPERTY INSURANCE CORPORATION, Appellee.

No. 3D21-0653

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Third District.

Opinion filed July 20, 2022

Ramon Rodriguez & Blanco-Herrera, LLP, and Daniel J. Rodriguez ; Kula & Associates, P.A., and Elliot B. Kula, W. Aaron Daniel and William D. Mueller, for appellant.

Kelley Kronenberg, P.A., and Kimberly J. Fernandes (Tallahassee), for appellee.

Before HENDON, MILLER and BOKOR, JJ.

BOKOR, J.

Water Restoration Guys, Inc., as assignee of the insured, appeals the final judgment and underlying summary judgment entered in favor of the insurer, Citizens Property Insurance Corporation. Citizens argues on appeal that the insured's lack of compliance with the insurance policy's requirement that the insured submit certain documentation to support the claimed loss rendered Water Restoration Guys’ suit premature. However, we need look no further than Citizens’ denial letter to conclude that the lawsuit was not premature or otherwise barred by the insured's failure to comply.

Citizens communicated with the insured and her attorney via letter from Citizens on October 6, 2015 (memorializing a conversation with insured and requesting additional information), and via email between Citizens and the attorney for the insured on October 20–21, 2015 (discussing the provision of a recorded statement and referencing the assignment of benefits to Water Restoration Guys). Ultimately, Citizens sent the insured a letter on November 4, 2015, in which Citizens unequivocally noted that it "completed its investigation of [the insured's] roof leak claim." The letter detailed the results of Citizens’ investigation of the claim and denied coverage after inspection of the property based on "wear, tear and deterioration ... not covered in [the insured's] policy" as previously discussed with the insured and further detailed in the letter. Nowhere does this letter claim that the denial resulted from insufficient information, or from a failure to comply with policy terms such as providing information, giving statements under oath, or the like.

To require an insured (or, transitively, its assignee) to provide documentation irrelevant to the purported basis for the denial, and after the denial decision is made, would be an absurd reading of the policy at issue. Our sister court explained that "[w]hen an insurance carrier investigates a claim of loss and denies coverage because it...