In Ardrey v. USAA Casualty Insurance Co., 2012 WL 831620 (M.D. Fla. March 12, 2012), Download Ardrey v. USAA Casualty Ins. Co. (M.D. Fla. Case No. 8.12cv08, Order Filed March 12, 2012) PUBLIC ACCESS, a Federal District Court considered a Motion to Dismiss a Bad Faith Claim under Florida's Bad-Faith Statute. USAA based its Motion to Dismiss in part on an alleged failure of a USAA Uninsured Motorist Policyholder to comply with a statutory condition precedent of completing a legally sufficient Civil Remedy Notice form.
As reported by the Court in this case, USAA argued that certain specific Bad Faith claims alleged by the Plaintiff must be dismissed for failure to comply with the statutory condition precedent:
Because none of these specific violations were identified in the CRNs, USAA argues that Plaintiff's unfair settlement practices claim based on these alleged violations must be dismissed.
Id. at *3.
Plaintiff opposed the Motion to Dismiss in this regard on the ground that she went to the website of the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (formerly the Florida Department of Insurance), and there she filled out a form Civil Remedy Notice or "CRN" which she printed and sent to USAA. She contended that "she cannot be faulted for failing to list the specific statutory subsections in the CRNs, because the CRN form was provided online by the Department and she was required to select the statute that was violated from a drop-down menu. Thus, Plaintiff contends that she did not have the option to identify the specific subsections that USAA violated. Id.
The Federal Judge did not address this contention directly. However, the Federal Judge granted USAA's Motion to Dismiss in this regard, holding:
Furthermore, given the complete lack of any information in the CRN regarding the specific ways in which Plaintiff believed that USAA engaged in unfair settlement practices, the Court finds that the CRNs did not provide USAA with sufficient notice of her unfair settlement practices claim.
Id.
Two things come immediately to mind as a result of this decision. First, the OIR may need to provide statutory-compliant options as a part of its online Civil Remedy Notice form.
Second, after this case, at least, it will do Policyholders no good to rely on the OIR's online CRN form rather than on what the Florida Statute requires.
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