XL SPECIALTY INS. v. Aircraft Holdings

929 So. 2d 578, 2006 Fla. App. LEXIS 5850, 2006 WL 1058208
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedApril 24, 2006
Docket1D05-4333
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 929 So. 2d 578 (XL SPECIALTY INS. v. Aircraft Holdings) 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
XL SPECIALTY INS. v. Aircraft Holdings, 929 So. 2d 578, 2006 Fla. App. LEXIS 5850, 2006 WL 1058208 (Fla. Ct. App. 2006).

Opinion

929 So.2d 578 (2006)

XL SPECIALTY INSURANCE COMPANY, Petitioner,
v.
AIRCRAFT HOLDINGS, LLC, Respondent.

No. 1D05-4333.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, First District.

April 24, 2006.
Rehearing Denied May 31, 2006.

*579 Thomas M. Findley; Albert T. Gimbel; and Robert J. Telfer, III of Messer, Caparello & Self, P.A., Tallahassee, for Petitioner.

Gary A. Shipman and William E. Whitney of Dunlap, Toole, Shipman & Whitney, P.A., Tallahassee, for Respondent.

POLSTON, J.

Petitioner XL Specialty Insurance Company argues, in its petition for writ of certiorari, that the trial court's order compelling attorney-client privileged documents should be quashed because it misapplies the Florida Supreme Court's recent holding related to discovery of work product in first-party bad faith actions, Allstate Indemnity Co. v. Ruiz, 899 So.2d 1121 (Fla.2005), to attorney-client privileged communications. We agree, and therefore grant the petition and quash the trial court's August 29, 2005 order compelling discovery.[1]

I. BACKGROUND

A. Aircraft Holdings' Allegations

On August 14, 2003, a Learjet aircraft owned by Respondent Aircraft Holdings, LLC, and operated as an air ambulance crashed on landing at the airport in Cancun, Mexico. The insurance policy issued by XL covered the Learjet for physical damage under coverage F with a specifically stated "insured value" of $2.4 million. Under the policy definitions, "total loss" meant any physical damage loss for which *580 the costs to repair when added to the salvage value equals or exceeds the stated insured value. The aircraft was also covered by Endorsement 8 which "covers physical loss of or damage to the aircraft specified in Item 5 of the Declarations page caused by: . . . (e) Confiscation, nationalization, seizure, restraint [or] detention,. . . by or under the order of any Government . . . . or public or local authority."

Aircraft Holdings alleged that it promptly reported its aircraft to be an "estimated total loss," but that XL did little to investigate the extent of the damage. XL obtained a two-page preliminary repair estimate, which was admittedly incomplete. Aircraft Holdings retained the manufacturer of the aircraft, Learjet, to travel to Mexico to inspect the aircraft on multiple occasions. The damage reports were promptly supplied to XL, and indicated that the damage (which was worsening as the aircraft sat on the ground in Mexico) met the policy definition of "total loss."

The crash had damaged the airport's runway, and the Mexican authorities refused to allow the aircraft to be released for repairs in the United States until its damage claim was resolved. The XL policy covered Aircraft Holdings for damage to property of others such as the runway damage, but XL did not resolve the claim and obtain a release of the aircraft from Mexico. At the same time, XL did not offer any payment to Aircraft Holdings under Endorsement 8, which covered the aircraft for physical loss due to confiscation, seizure, restraint, or detention by the Mexican authorities.

In early March 2004, Aircraft Holdings demanded that XL furnish its own complete and current appraisal of the damage and proceed with an appraisal process specified under Condition 10 of the policy (which involved a referee to resolve differences between the appraisals). XL did not accept or reject the damage appraisal from Learjet and did not respond to Plaintiff's request to utilize the appraisal process.

B. Litigation

On April 14, 2004, Aircraft Holdings filed a complaint against XL alleging breach of contract (Count I) and a statutory cause of action for insurer bad faith pursuant to section 624.155, Florida Statutes (Count II). The trial court entered an order abating the bad faith claim on October 26, 2004, and entered judgment on the breach of contract claim in favor of Aircraft Holdings. At the time judgment was entered for Aircraft Holdings, awarding $2.4 million less the policy deductible of $10,000, XL had paid $2,390,000 into the registry of the court. The court also awarded attorney's fees to Aircraft Holdings. XL has appealed these rulings, which are currently separately on appeal to this court. This appeal does not address in any way the merits of Aircraft Holdings' allegations or the trial court's rulings in the breach of contract action.

Following entry of the orders in favor of Aircraft Holdings, the abatement of the bad faith claim under Count II was lifted by the trial court. Aircraft Holdings propounded discovery to XL on the bad faith issues, and XL filed numerous objections. The trial court entered an order on August 29, 2005, requiring that XL provide certain discovery:

ORDER PARTIALLY GRANTING PLAINTIFF'S MOTION TO COMPEL DISCOVERY
THIS MATTER came on for hearing before the Court upon the Plaintiff's Motion to Compel dated June 3, 2005, filed by Plaintiff, Aircraft Holdings, LLC, and after hearing argument of counsel, and the Court being otherwise fully advised *581 in the premises, it is hereby ORDERED that the motion to compel is GRANTED in part, as follows:
1. The Court finds that under the recent Florida Supreme Court ruling in Allstate Indemnity Co. v. Ruiz, 899 So.2d 1121 (Fla.2005), the same discovery rules applicable to "third party" bad faith claims now apply to "first party" bad faith claims such as the case at bar. Therefore the discovery objections of attorney-client privilege and work product protection no longer apply on behalf of Defendant XL, for any documents and materials in the claim, and litigation files through the date of the resolution of the underlying breach of contract claim in favor of Plaintiff. Accordingly, all of XL's objections on the basis of attorney-client privilege and work product protection are hereby OVERRULED. In holding that discovery in first party and third party claims were to be treated identically, the Florida Supreme Court stated that "the pertinent issue is the manner in which the company has handled the suit including its consideration of the advice of counsel so as to discharge its mandated duty of good faith." Furthermore, the Court stated, "we hold that in connection with evaluating the obligation to process claims in good faith under Section 624.155, all materials, including documents, memoranda, and letters, contained in the underlying claim and related litigation file material that was created up to and including the date of resolution of the underlying disputed matter and pertain in any way to coverage, benefits, liability, or damages, should also be produced in a first party bad faith action." Accordingly, the Court finds that in the case at bar, Plaintiff is entitled to discovery responses and production from Defendant XL of all materials contained in the files of XL, its counsel/third party administrators Kern & Wooley, LLP, and its Florida counsel Messer, Caparello & Self, P.A. generated up until the date that this Court granted summary judgment on January 6, 2005, including but not limited to all letters, correspondence, memoranda and emails, by and between those entities. The Court further finds that there is no basis to limit the discovery responses from Defendant XL to those materials generated before April 2004 when Plaintiff's breach of contract action was filed and the notice of insurer violation was filed with the Department of Financial Services. Rather, Ruiz specifically held that "all materials . . .

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Bluebook (online)
929 So. 2d 578, 2006 Fla. App. LEXIS 5850, 2006 WL 1058208, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/xl-specialty-ins-v-aircraft-holdings-fladistctapp-2006.