STATE FARM FIRE AND CASUALTY COMPANY, APPELLANT,
v.
FEMININE FASHIONS, INC., APPELLEE

Fla. 3d DCA | 1987-06-30
No. 87-497
Before HUBBART, DANIEL S. PEARSON and FERGUSON, JJ.
509 So. 2d 376 Florida District Court of Appeal, Third District (1987) Positive Treatment
Cited by 3 cases


Opinion of the Court
PER CURIAM.

PER CURIAM.

The order denying the appellant’s motion to compel arbitration of the dispute over the amount of the loss sustained by the insured as the result of a fire is reversed. See U.S. Fire Insurance Co. v. Franko, 443 So. 2d 170 (Fla. 1st DCA 1983). Although the insured, relying upon Hayes v. Allstate Insurance Co., 722 F. 2d 1332 (7th Cir.1983), urges that the policy is ambiguous as to the right to arbitrate and thus must be construed against State Farm, we agree with Judge Posner’s dissent in Hayes that the insurance contract there, as the one here, gives “either party an unambiguous right to demand appraisal.” Id. at 1341 (Posner, J., dissenting). That right, not having been waived by State Farm through some inconsistent action on its part, should have been enforced by the lower court upon State Farm’s motion to compel.

Reversed and remanded.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

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  • …ject the claim.2 Appraisal provisions in insurance policies may be construed as agreements to arbitrate. See, e.g., Intracoastal Ventures Corp. v. Safeco Ins. Co., 540 So. 2d 162 (Fla. 4th DCA 1989); State Farm Fire & Cas. Co. v. Feminine Fashions, 509 So. 2d 376 (Fla. 3d DCA 1987). Here, however, the insurer’s [*108] reservation of its right to deny the claim destroys mutuality of obligation, is incompatible with the goals of arbitration, and renders illusory any purported agreement to submit to binding arb…
  • Intracoastal Ventures Corp. v. Safeco Ins. Co. of Am., 540 So. 2d 162 (Fla. 4th DCA 1989)
    …itration in the event of disagreement on the amount of loss.” Id. at 371, n. 1. Once again, the provision in Transamerica Insurance Co. was almost identical to the one sub judice. See also State Farm Fire and Casualty Co. v. Feminine Fashions, Inc., 509 So. 2d 376 (Fla. 3d DCA 1987). The insured cites Wiggs & Maale Construction Co. v. Stone Flex, Inc., 263 So. 2d 607 (Fla. 4th DCA 1972), where the court held there was not an agreement to arbitrate. The construction contract in Stone Flex forbade alterations…
  • Preferred Mut. Ins. Co. v. Martinez, 643 So. 2d 1101 (Fla. 3d DCA 1994)
    …6 (Fla. 3d DCA 1994); Intracoastal Ventures Corp. v. Safeco Ins. Co. of Am., 540 So. 2d 162 (Fla. 4th DCA 1989); U.S. Fire Ins. Co. v. Franko, 443 So. 2d 170 [*1103] (Fla. 1st DCA 1983); see State Farm Fire & Casualty Co. v. Feminine Fashions, Inc., 509 So. 2d 376 (Fla. 3d DCA 1987). As with arbitration clauses, appraisal provisions are deemed to be conditions precedent to recovery under the insurance policies. Trans-america Ins. Co. v. Weed, 420 So. 2d 370 (Fla. 1st DCA 1982). Moreover, contrary to the insur…

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