Insurance Appraisal Award Declared Invalid for Failure to State ‘Amount of Loss’
By Zachary D. Sonenblum
On September 22, 2025, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida vacated a $187 million insurance appraisal award arising from Hurricane Sally’s damage to the Portofino Towers in Pensacola Beach based on the insured’s appraiser’s failure to state the “amount of loss” as required by the policy (Case No. 3:23cv00453-MCR-HTC).
Portofino’s appointed appraiser—George Keys—admitted that the $233 million “Statement of Loss” was only a “starting point,” and “was not reflective of the ‘real world’ money needed to restore the property.” According to Keys, about $217 million (or approximately 93% of the total “statement of loss”) was attributable to an estimate prepared by his pricing expert, Larry McCallister.
Further, according to McCallister, “he merely supplied ‘à la carte pricing’ for the project,” and “no ‘thinking person’ would use his ‘price list’ as a stand in for the total dollar value of the damage caused by Hurricane Sally for the same reason that ‘most people wouldn’t eat all the food’ on ‘a menu for an entire restaurant.’”
Accordingly, the Court held that Keys “never established a final scope for the proposed repair work before he submitted the $233 million ‘statement of loss’ for the damage caused by Hurricane Sally—or ever.”
The Court ultimately concluded that the appraisal award “cannot stand because it is undisputed that Portofino’s appointed appraiser, George Keys, did not fulfill his raison d’etre: he never stated the ‘amount of loss’ to Portofino’s property caused by Hurricane Sally as required by the applicable insurance policy provisions.”
The Court therefore granted the insurers’ motion for summary judgment, declared the appraisal award invalid, and ordered the parties to conduct a new appraisal before a new appraisal panel.
Zachary D. Sonenblum