Florida/Georgia Personal Injury & Workers Compensation

...After their property sustained damage during Hurricane Irma, the named insureds submitted a claim under the policy. First Community paid a portion of the claimed damages. The named insureds filed suit against First Community but later voluntarily dismissed the case. 1 We summarily reject the notion that section 627.7153, Florida Statutes (2019), which governs anti-assignment provisions in insurance policies, has any application to this case....

...signature of all named insureds in order to be enforceable against a defendant in a breach of contract lawsuit for property damage.” The county court proposed its certified question at the assignee’s request. The assignee argues that in 2019, the Legislature enacted section 627.7153, Florida Statutes (2019), which expressly permits a policy issued or renewed on or after July 1, 2019, to restrict in whole or in part an insured’s right to execute an assignment agreement when certain enumerated conditions (not at issue here) are met. See generally § 627.7153, Fla. Stat. (2019). According to the assignee, the Legislature’s enactment of section 627.7153 created a question as to whether policies issued or renewed before July 1, 2019, were prohibited from restricting in whole or in part an insured’s right to execute an assignment agreement. We initially accepted jurisdiction to...

...the facts of this case.” Id. Our Restoration 1 holding did not turn on any “specific pronouncement by the Florida Legislature,” or lack thereof, in 2018. And we do not question our Restoration 1 holding in light of the Legislature’s 2019 enactment of section 627.7153, Florida Statutes (2019), to expressly permit a policy issued or renewed on or after July 1, 2019, to restrict in whole or in part an insured’s right to execute an assignment agreement when certain enumerated conditions (not at issue here) are met....

...der 1 Assignment agreements that fail to comply with the statutory requirements of section 627.7152 are “invalid and unenforceable.” § 627.7152(2)(d), Fla. Stat. 2 We note that no party to the instant appeal has raised the applicability of section 627.7153, Florida Statutes (2019). See also Adjei v. First Community Ins. Co., 47 Fla. L. Weekly D2116, 2022 WL 10733838 at *1 n.1 (Fla. 3d DCA Oct. 19, 2022) (“We summarily reject the notion that section 627.7153, Florida Statutes (2019), which governs anti-assignment provisions in insurance policies, has any application to this case.”) 9  the insurance policy.” SFR Servs., LLC v....

...3d 643 (noting: ”We are mindful that there are competing policy considerations here. These policy considerations are for the legislature to decide, not our court.”) And, for agreements entered into after July 1, 2019 our Legislature has now done so. See §627.7153, Fla. Stat. (2019) (enacting a law, effective July 1, 2019, authorizing insurance companies under certain conditions to make available a 1 Indeed, the Florida Legislature did recently address this issue, enacting section 627.7153, Florida Statutes (2019), which allows insurance companies to make available a residential or commercial property insurance policy restricting the assignment of post-loss benefits. However, in an effort to balance the competing public policies in this area, this new law imposes certain requirements on the insurance company before it may restrict such post-loss assignments. See §627.7153(2), Fla. Stat. (2019). The parties concede (and we agree) that section 627.7153 does not apply to the agreement in the instant case, as this new law “applies to a policy issued or renewed on or after July 1, 2019.” § 627.7153(5). 6 residential or commercial property insurance policy restricting the assignment of post-loss benefits). CONCLUSION Applying a century of well-established Florida law to this...

...Insurer moved to dismiss, arguing that the assignment of benefits failed to comply with the requirements of section 627.7152, Florida Statutes (2020). The trial court dismissed the action, and appellant appeals. Appellant contends that the insurance policy had to comply with section 627.7153, Florida Statutes (2020). Section 627.7153 permits an insurance policy to prohibit the assignment of benefits if the insurer complies with the provisions of the statute....

...Appellant maintains that in order for the insurer to challenge the assignment based on section 627.7152, the insurer would have had to incorporate the requirements of that section into its policy. This argument is without merit. In this case, the insurance policy did not prohibit the assignment of benefits. Therefore, section 627.7153 is inapplicable....