Lender Processing Services, Inc. v. Arch Insurance Co.

183 So. 3d 1052, 2015 Fla. App. LEXIS 5873, 2015 WL 1809318
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedApril 22, 2015
DocketNo. 1D14-4161
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 183 So. 3d 1052 (Lender Processing Services, Inc. v. Arch Insurance Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lender Processing Services, Inc. v. Arch Insurance Co., 183 So. 3d 1052, 2015 Fla. App. LEXIS 5873, 2015 WL 1809318 (Fla. Ct. App. 2015).

Opinion

LEWIS, C.J.

Petitioner, Lender Processing Services, Inc., petitions this Court- for a writ of certiorari and argues that the trial court departed from the essential requirements of the law in overruling its assertions of attorney-client privilege as to questions posed to two of its witnesses during the hearing addressing the motion to enforce settlement agreement filed , by Respondent, Arch Insurance Company, and Petitioner’s motion, to strike Respondent’s motion to enforce.. For the reasons that follow, we deny the certiorari petition.

In May 2012, Petitioner, a provider at the time of mortgage processing, loan servicing, and default management services to the mortgage lending industry, filed its First-Amended Complaint against several insurance companies, including Respondent. In the “insurance coverage dispute,” Petitioner sought “enforcement of the defendants’ obligations under a directors and officers liability insurance program.” Petitioner alleged that Respondent, the primary insurer, “unjustifiably has denied that it has any obligation to pay the substantial costs that [Petitioner] has incurred in connection with defending against two putative class actions alleging securities law violations due to purported financial disclosure deficiencies, and two companion derivative actions — ” Count I was a declaratory judgment action against Respondent wherein Petitioner asserted that Respondent was contractually obligated to indemnify it for “Loss, including Defense Costs” incurred in connection with the underlying claims. A mediation in the underlying suits against Petitioner occurred in January 2013.

In July 2013, Respondent filed a motion to enforce a settlement agreement that it allegedly entered into with Petitioner in the coverage lawsuit. According to' Respondent, the pax-ties reached a settlement on January 30, 2013, “agreeing upon the settlement’s material terms which included [a certain payment amount by Respondent to Petitioner] in exchange for [Petitioner’s] agreement to forego any future rights [it] might otherwise have to demand further amounts from [Respondent] under the Arch Policy.” Respondent asserted that despite the fact that the parties’ explicit agreement was memorialized in email correspondence, Petitioner had “attempted to unilaterally and materially alter the terms of the settlement to which it already had agreed” and “in a post hoc effort to secure more favorable consideration ... [wa]s only willing to provide [Respondent] with a substantially more ’ limited claim release.” Respondent further asserted that Petitioner’s in-house counsel, Robert Pinder, was involved in the settlement negotiations and that Petitioner could not in good faith uni[1055]*1055laterally alter the terms of the agreed-upon settlement in its favor.

Respondent attached several emails to its motion to enforce. A January 10, 2013, email from Petitioner’s counsel in the coverage lawsuit to Respondent’s counsel “constitute[d] a demand- [from Petitioner] for contribution from [Respondent], as well as a settlement demand, the payment of which would satisfy [Respondent’s] obligation to contribute.” A January 30, 2013, email from Respondent’s counsel to Petitioner’s counsel in the coverage lawsuit set forth in part, “I’m writing to respond to Bob Pinder’s settlement proposal conveyed in our call yesterday afternoon, which I have forwarded to [Respondent].” After conveying the proposed settlement amount, Respondent’s counsel wrote, “[Respondent] appreciates Bob’s willingness to conclude the process of incremental moves and to define the parties’ respective endpoints.” Respondent then proposed a lesser settlement, amount. In a subsequent January 30, 2013, email, Petitioner’s counsel in the coverage lawsuit stated that Mr. Pinder, whom he had spoken with, “very much appreciates the spirit with which [Respondent] made the' offer and your prompt response.” Petitioner rejected the settlement amount proposed by Respondent and proposed a greater amount. Later that day, Respondent’s counsel replied via email, stating in part, “[Respondent] has asked me to advise you that [Respondent] accepts this offer, and is prepared to move on to the settlement documentation step.” Respondent “appreciate^] Bob Pinder’s constructive and thoughtful contributions to the settlement negotiation process.” Respondent’s draft agreement included signature lines for itself; Petitioner, and Petitioner’s officers and directors. In a subsequent email, Petitioner’s counsel in the coverage lawsuit wrote that Petitioner “will represent it has authority to enter into the settlement on behalf of the individual insureds [officers and directors], so only [Petitioner] will be signing.” Petitioner’s draft settlement agreement included a signature line for Petitioner “on behalf of itself and on behalf’ of its officers and directors. The signature' lines for the officers and directors that were included in Respondent’s draft were crossed through.

In September 2013, Petitioner moved to strike Respondent’s motion to enforce. In November 2013, Petitioner filed a written opposition to the motion to enforce. Therein, Petitioner argued that without express authority from its officers and' directors to release their coverage under Respondent’s policy, the “purported agreement [Respondent] seeks to enforce could not have' been formed” and that Respondent “did not assert, and could not in good faith have asserted, that [Petitioner’s] directors and officers participated in the negotiations with [Respondent] and authorized [Petitioner] or [its] counsel to agree to a settlement that included a policy release.” It further contended:

The individual Insured Persons were not part of the negotiations between [Petitioner] and [Respondent]; they did not interact with [Respondent’s] counsel and thus could not have “given the appearance of an agency relationship” with [Petitioner’s] counsel. [Petitioner] never represented that it was negotiating on their behalf, and [Respondent] had actual notice through its own Policy that [Petitioner] could not bind these Insured Persons....
[Respondent] .is trying to conco.ct an agreement with [Petitioner]. [Respondent’s] concoction is sheer fiction; it also is a legal and factual impossibility because [Petitioner] and its counsel were not authorized to release the rights of [Petitioner’s] directors and officers under [Respondent’s] policy.- Accordingly, [Respondent’s] Motion should be denied.

[1056]*1056In support of its motion to strike and written opposition, Petitioner relied upon Robert Pinder’s November 2013 affidavit wherein he represented that he “had authority only to resolve the claims brought by the plaintiff for the prospective class” in one of the underlying suits, that he had “never ... represented to [Respondent] or any of its counsel that either [Petitioner] or [he] had the authority to settle the Coverage Lawsuit on behalf of any of the officers or directors of [Petitioner], who are named as defendants ..., nor [had he] authorized [Petitioner’s] outside counsel to make such a representation to [Respondent] or its counsel.” Mr. Pinder also averred that he “never ... represented to [Respondent] or its counsel that the Insured Persons would release their rights to coverage by the insurance policy issued by [Respondent] to [Petitioner] for the 2010-2011 term in order to settle the Coverage Lawsuit, nor [had he] authorized [Petitioner’s] outside counsel to make such a representation to [Respondent] or its counsel.” Mr.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Kesler v. Progressive Select Insurance Company
District Court of Appeal of Florida, 2026
Cary Portner v. Gil Koppel and Aleksandra Koppel
District Court of Appeal of Florida, 2024
U'Dreka Andrews v. State of Florida
218 So. 3d 466 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 2017)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
183 So. 3d 1052, 2015 Fla. App. LEXIS 5873, 2015 WL 1809318, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lender-processing-services-inc-v-arch-insurance-co-fladistctapp-2015.