In Bailey v. People’s Trust Ins. Co., 392 So.3d 123 (Fla. 4th DCA 2024), a Florida intermediate appellate court agreed with a homeowner-policyholder’s argument that “by responding to the CRN on the merits and failing to identify any specific defect with the CRN in its response, [her insurance carrier] waived the right to contest the validity of the CRN in the bad faith action. We agree.” Bailey, 392 So. 3d at 124.
By deciding to respond to the Civil Remedy Notice on the merits while failing to identify a specific defect within the CRN, the homeowner’s carrier may have added icing to the cake, or in this case, to its waiver. Under established Florida law applied in the Bailey decision, “an insurer waives its right to contest a defect in the CRN if it fails to identify the specific defect in its response to the CRN.” Bailey, 392 So. 3d at 124.
Period.
The appellate court accordingly reversed the trial court’s grant of summary judgment to the carrier on the issue of the CRN’s invalidity and remanded for determination of the bad faith claim.
Civil remedy notices and defenses to them that have been adjudicated in the first-party bad faith case law, like Bailey, are discussed in 2 DENNIS J. WALL, LITIGATION AND PREVENTION OF INSURER BAD FAITH §§ 9:21 and 11:24 (Thomson Reuters West 3d Edition & 2024 Supplements), while the defense of waiver generally in first-party bad faith cases is analyzed in 2 id. § 11:14. Similar CRN issues are discussed in the third-party context in 1 id. §§ 3:30 and 5:57, and general waiver issues are discussed in the three types of third-party bad faith cases in 1 id. §§ 5:13, 5:32, and 5:48.
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