A Florida appellate court recently held an insurer waived its objection to compliance with the notice requirement under Florida law when it responded to a civil remedy notice (“CRN”) within 60 days of the Florida Department of Financial Services (“DFS”) acceptance date without challenging the timeliness of the notice in its response. Evergreen Lakes HOA, Inc. v. Lloyd’s Underwriters at London, 2017 WL 4679597 (Fla. 4th DCA Oct. 18, 2017).
The insured made a claim and filed a CRN against the insurer, which was accepted by the DFS. The insurer responded to the CRN within the 60-day response period challenging only the sufficiency of the CRN. The insured then sued the insurer for bad faith claims handling. The trial court granted the insurer’s motion for summary judgment, finding that the insured could not prove that the insurer received the CRN on or before the DFS acceptance date, thus precluding the insured’s bad faith claim. The insured appealed.
The appellate court reversed and remanded, finding that the trial court erred in granting summary judgment in favor of the insurer based on the insurer’s lack of proper notice argument. The appellate court noted that section 624.155, Fla. Stat., does not require that the insurer be “given” a copy of the CRN before the DFS acceptance date. Regardless, the appellate court held that the insurer waived any such requirement by responding to the CRN within 60 days of the DFS acceptance date without challenging its timely receipt of the CRN.
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