SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF FLORIDA CASE PRECEDENT: A LOOK AT THE law.
Happy St. Patrick's Day!
There are other decisions in the Southern District of Florida that reject the filed rate doctrine in insurance cases. Many of them are cited by the plaintiffs in their reply memorandum to the defendants' motions to dismiss in the pending case, Lowe v. Loancare, LLC (S.D. Fla. No. 1:15-cv-23700-KMM).
So, Trevethan is by no means the only Southern District decision on point. In reality, Trevethan is perhaps the only Southern District decision that applies the filed rate doctrine to an insurance case. Certainly it is only one of a handful of such decisions if there are more than one.
The Rothstein decision by a panel of the Second Circuit stands on similar precedential ground. The filed rate doctrine was doggedly adopted by the Rothstein panel in spite of the law governing insurance cases and contrary to the record in Rothstein, as examined in detail in the Insurance Litigation Reporter article available at www.lenderforceplacedinsurance.com for free and with the permission of Thomson Reuters Westlaw the copyright holder.
Moreover, other Circuit Courts of Appeal have rejected the filed rate doctrine in insurance cases. These include the Third and Ninth Circuit Courts of Appeal, for two examples. Decisions of Courts rejecting the filed rate doctrine by other Circuits can of course be cited as easily as a decision of a Second Circuit panel which was overly determined to apply the filed rate doctrine. There ought to be no obstacle to bringing these decisions to the attention of 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, who will decide whether the filed rate doctrine applies in another insurance case pending in the Southern District of Florida, Lowe v. Loancare, LLC (S.D. Fla. No. 1:15-cv-23700-KMM).
In our next and final article on these issues on St. Patrick's Day 2016, we will take a look at the facts in the Lowe case pending in the Southern District of Florida.
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.
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