In the case of Wilt v. Depositors Insurance Co., 2013 WL 6195768 (M.D. Fla. November 26, 2013), a U.S. Magistrate Judge recommended that a plaintiff's motion for remand in an insurance case be denied. The U.S. District Judge "adopted, confirmed, and approved" the report "in all respects," but added a thought of her own.
The District Judge added to the observation of the Magistrate Judge that settlement demand letters ordinarily do not, standing alone, establish that the amount in controversy is in excess of $75,000 for federal jurisdiction to attach in diversity cases. However, in this case the District Judge added the thought that the settlement demand letters in this case "provide sufficient information to support the notion that Plaintiff is seeking in excess of the jurisdictional minimum." Wilt v. Depositors Insurance Co., 2013 WL 6195768 *1 n.1 (M.D. Fla. November 26, 2013).
To put this in context, the Magistrate Judge's report and the District Judge's "adoption, confirmation and approval" of that report "in all respects," were based on three (3) independent reasons for ruling.
First, this is an uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage case in which the plaintiff-policyholder is seeking the remaining UM limits of $275,000.00 out of a policy limit of $300,000.00. She alleged in her complaint that the UM policy limit of $300,000.00 was not enough to compensate her for the injuries she sustained in an automobile accident caused by an underinsured motorist. That alone was sufficient for the Magistrate Judge to recommend that the plaintiff's motion for remand be denied as to the required $75,000+ amount in controversy, Wilt v. Depositors Insurance Co., 2013 WL 6195768 *7 (M.D. Fla. November 26, 2013), and for the District Judge to agree. Wilt v. Depositors Insurance Co., 2013 WL 6195768 *1 (M.D. Fla. November 26, 2013).
Second, in a second count in addition to the coverage count, the plaintiff in this case alleged a claim for insurer bad faith. She accordingly attached a copy of her Florida Civil Remedy Notice of Insurer Violation to her complaint. In the CRN, the plaintiff-policyholder's attorney wrote that "'her claim has a value well in excess of the remaining available [UM/UIM] policy limits of $275,000.00'". Wilt v. Depositors Insurance Co., 2013 WL 6195768 *3, *4 (M.D. Fla. November 26, 2013). This, too, was an independent basis for the Magistrate Judge's recommendation that the plaintiff's motion to remand be denied in this case. She, the Magistrate Judge, wrote that "[t]he Civil Remedy Notice attached to [the] Complaint also supports a finding that the amount in controversy exceeds $75,000.00. This is further evidence from which it can be reasonably inferred that the amount in controversy exceeds $75,000.00." Wilt v. Depositors Insurance Co., 2013 WL 6195768 *7 (M.D. Fla. November 26, 2013). The District Judge again agreed. Wilt v. Depositors Insurance Co., 2013 WL 6195768 *1 (M.D. Fla. November 26, 2013).
The Magistrate Judge and the District Judge seemed to part company on the District Judge's third ground for approving the report, however, namely on whether the settlement demand letters in this particular case could be a basis for denying remand. The Magistrate Judge took the view that she had already recommended for two good and sufficient reasons that the plaintiff's remand motion be denied. To the Magistrate Judge, then, "it is not necessary to consider the letter memorializing the $300,000 settlement offer [i.e., plaintiff's settlement demand] to conclude that the amount in controversy is satisfied." Wilt v. Depositors Insurance Co., 2013 WL 6195768 *7 (M.D. Fla. November 26, 2013).
However, the District Judge's take was a little different. To her, the "settlement demand letters here" were a part of the "reasonable deductions, reasonable inferences and reasonable expectations" which a Federal Court is permitted to draw or to take into account, as the case may be, from a complaint and its exhibits in considering a motion to remand. Wilt v. Depositors Insurance Co., 2013 WL 6195768 *1 * n.1 (M.D. Fla. November 26, 2013).
So, there you have it, the context of what one U.S. District Judge meant when she wrote that settlement demand letter supports the "notion" of $75,000+.
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