SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF FLORIDA CASE PRECEDENT:  A LOOK AT THE facts.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

On the facts in the pending case, Lowe v. Loancare, LLC (S.D. Fla. No. 1:15-cv-23700-KMM), declarations filed by the defendants do not appear to attach any documents with an Insurance Commissioner's "APPROVED" stamp on the insurer's rate filing.  The same lawyers representing defendants in the Lyons case in New York filed that kind of proof there.  For that reason alone, Lyons of New York is not precedent for applying the filed rate doctrine in the Lowe case in Florida.

The declarations filed in the Lowe case do not present documents that tend to prove that the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation approved an insurance carrier's filing for an insurance premium rate.  Instead, the declarations filed by the defendants in Lowe present testimony that the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation approved insurance rate requests filed by the insurance carrier involved, American Security Insurance Company or "ASIC," including in 2013.

The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation disapproved and rejected a rate request filed by the insurance carrier involved, ASIC, including in 2013.

The evidence of ASIC's filed rate requests for approval of its insurance premiums in Florida -- including ASIC's filed rate request that was denied and rejected by the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation -- is easy to find, including rate requests filed by ASIC seeking approval of its insurance premium rates for 2013.

The evidence is in the public record.  It is included in four pages in Chapter 6, n. 35, of my book on Lender Force-Placed Insurance Practices published by the American Bar Association in 2015. 

In conclusion, based on the law that applies to the claims and defenses in Lowe, and on the facts in the record in Lowe, there is much for the Chief Judge of the Southern District, the Honorable K. Michael Moore, and the U.S. Magistrate Judge on the case as well, the Honorable Chris M. McAliley, to consider before issuing what will probably be a short order refusing to grant a motion to dismiss based on the filed rate doctrine in another insurance case pending in the Southern District of Florida, Lowe v. Loancare, LLC (S.D. Fla. No. 1:15-cv-23700-KMM).

Please Read The Disclaimer.  ©2016 by Dennis J. Wall, author of Litigation and Prevention of Insurer Bad Faith (3d ed. Thomson Reuters West in 2 Volumes, with  Supplements).  The recent defense of the Filed Rate Doctrine in insurance cases is addressed by itself in a new Section § 11:26 in 2016.  All rights reserved.