Universal Property & Casualty Insurance Company v. James Kattan

• Court: District Court of Appeal of Florida
• Decided: August 14, 2024
• Docket: 2022-2197
• Status: Published

Opinion

Third District Court of Appeal State of Florida

Opinion filed August 14, 2024. Not final until disposition of timely filed motion for rehearing.

No. 3D22-2197 Lower Tribunal No. 18-3438

Universal Property & Casualty Insurance Company, Appellant,

vs.

James Kattan, et al., Appellees.

An Appeal from the Circuit Court for Miami-Dade County, Beatrice Butchko, Judge.

Akerman LLP and Kristen M. Fiore (Tallahassee); Akerman LLP and Tracy T. Segal (West Palm Beach); Akerman LLP and Gary J. Guzzi, for appellant.

Kula & Associates, P.A., Elliot B. Kula, and William D. Mueller, for appellees.

Before FERNANDEZ, LINDSEY and MILLER, JJ.

PER CURIAM. Affirmed. See Whitman v. Castlewood Intern. Corp., 383 So. 2d 618,

619 (Fla. 1980) (affirming that the two-issue rule provides “that where there

is no proper objection to the use of a general verdict, reversal is improper

where no error is found as to one of two issues submitted to the jury on the

basis that the appellant is unable to establish that he has been prejudiced.”);

Mason v. Fla. Sheriffs' Self-Insurance Fund, 699 So. 2d 268, 270 (Fla. 5th

DCA 1997) (“Insurance contracts must be read in light of the skill and

experience of ordinary people, and be given their everyday meaning as

understood by the ‘man on the street.’”); Mejia v. Citizens Prop. Ins. Corp.,

161 So. 3d 576, 578 (Fla. 2d DCA 2014) (“[A]n insured claiming under an all-

risks policy has the burden of proving that the insured property suffered a

loss while the policy was in effect. The burden then shifts to the insurer to

prove that the cause of the loss was excluded from coverage under the

policy’s terms.”); Citizens Prop. Ins. Corp. v. Tio, 304 So. 3d 1278, 1280 (Fla.

3d DCA 2020) (As the Timing Protocol in the insurance policy has the same

effect as section 627.7011(3), Florida Statutes (2022), it likewise “governs

an insurer's post-loss obligations in adjusting and settling claims covered by

a replacement cost policy, and does not operate as a limitation on a

policyholder's remedies for an insurer's breach of an insurance contract.”).