It is unclear whether Luis and Elisa Gonzalez alleged insurance bad faith when they filed their lawsuit against Safepoint Insurance Company, their homeowner's insurance company. All we know about their complaint against Safepoint is that they alleged "that Safepoint breached their homeowner's insurance policy by failing to provide coverage for damage to their home." Safepoint Ins. Co. v. Gonzalez, ___ So. 3d ___, No. 3D20-1050, 2020 WL 5932521, at *1 (Fla. 3d DCA October 7, 2020).
However, we know all we need to know under Florida law about their discovery request for production of Safepoint's claim file materials. They filed a motion to compel "[p]rior to any determination of coverage for the alleged loss[.]" Safepoint, 2020 WL 5932521, at *1.
That fact alone simultaneously gave the Florida appellate court certiorari jurisdiction and doomed the production requested by the Gonzalezes. In Florida, an insurance carrier's claim files are work product and are protected from discovery before coverage has been determined "in a breach of contract case." Safepoint, 2020 WL 5932521, at *1. Parenthetically, if the Gonzalezes had alleged a claim for insurer bad faith in this particular case, it would rise and fall on whether there was coverage in the first place, so the rule would seem to be the same under Florida law: Before a determination of coverage, an insurer's claim files are work product protected from discovery.
The appellate court in this case accordingly granted Safepoint's petition for writ of certiorari and quashed the order in which the trial court granted the policyholders' motion to compel production from Safepoint's claim file.
Discovery in first-party insurance cases like Safepoint v. Gonzalez, is addressed with an eye to Claims Adjuster's Files in 2 DENNIS J. WALL, LITIGATION AND PREVENTION OF INSURER BAD FAITH § 12:5 (Thomson Reuters West 3d ed. & 2020 Supps), and in 2 id., § 12:6, concerning Home Office Claims Files, while discovery in third-party insurance cases of Claims Adjuster's Files is addressed in 1 id., § 8:5, and discovery of Home Office Claims Files and Setting of Reserves is the focus of 1 id., § 8:6.
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