Florida Middle District Grants Unopposed Motion to Compel Appraisal but Denies Insurer’s Request for Itemization

By Kelly M. Vogt

In Camilus v. Scottsdale Ins. Co., 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 27080 (M.D. Fla. Feb. 16, 2024), the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, Orlando Division, granted an insurer’s unopposed motion to compel appraisal and abate litigation but denied the insurer’s request that the appraisal be itemized, which the motion to dismiss indicated the insured objected to due to the language of the appraisal portion of the policy.

The insured filed a suit alleging that her property was insured under a homeowner’s insurance policy when it was damaged as a result of Hurricane Ian. In the suit, the insured argued that her insurer failed to pay the amounts she requested to repair the water damage, thereby breaching the parties’ insurance contract.

The insurer subsequently requested that the Court abate the action until the appraisal process outlined in the parties’ insurance contract was completed and that the Court order that the appraisal be itemized. The insurer’s motion was unopposed and indicated that the insured did not object to entering an appraisal. However, the motion did indicate that the insured objected to the insurer’s request for itemization. 

Under Florida law, which mandates that a court consider the language of the policy first and foremost when interpreting an insurance contract, if the language of the appraisal portion of a policy does not require or otherwise suggest that an appraisal should be itemized, the Court cannot compel itemization of the appraisal over the objection of one of the contracting parties. 

Thus, the Court denied the insurer’s request for the appraisal to be itemized due to the objection of the insured while simultaneously granting the insurer’s motion to abate litigation until the completion of the appraisal process due to the insured’s lack of objection to abating the action.