Citizens Property Insurance Not Liable for First Party Bad Faith Claims
Thursday, the Florida Supreme Court issued its opinion in Citizens Property Insurance Corp., v. Perdido Sun Condominium Association, Inc., considering the issue as to whether Citizens Property Insurance could be liable for First Party Bad Faith Claims. The Supreme Court determined that Citizens was not liable for such claims and that no exception for such claims existed from Citizens statutory immunity. This places Citizens in a different position, in regard to insureds, than other insurance carriers who may be offering similar property policies. The issue in was whether the Legislature intended CitizensProperty Insurance Corporation, a state-created entity that provides property insurance, to be liable for statutory first-party bad faith claims as an exception to its statutory immunity from suit. The issue had come before the Supreme Court from the First District's decision in Perdido Sun Condominium Ass’n v. Citizens Property Insurance Corp., 129 So. 3d 1210 (Fla. 1st DCA 2014), which...