ROY JOSSFOLK, APPELLANT,
v.
UNITED PROPERTY & CASUALTY INSURANCE COMPANY, APPELLEE

Fla. 4th DCA | 2013-03-20
No. 4D12-443
CIKLIN, J, and BLANC, PETER, Associate Judge, concur.
110 So. 3d 110 Florida District Court of Appeal, Fourth District (2013) Negative Treatment
Cited by 12 cases

AI-generated. These summaries, headnotes, and key points are machine-generated and may contain errors or omissions. Always verify against the full opinion text below. Not legal advice.

Synopsis

Jossfolk sought declaratory relief to obtain an appraisal of "Ordinance and Law" coverage for roof damage from Hurricane Wilma after an initial appraisal excluded such coverage. The court reversed summary judgment, holding that Ordinance and Law coverage cannot be appraised until it is actually incurred, which did not occur until the City required roof replacement to comply with current building codes.


Holding

The court held that Ordinance and Law coverage cannot be appraised until it is actually incurred. Because the initial appraisal occurred before Jossfolk applied for repairs and before any ordinance-compliance costs were incurred, the coverage could not have been appraised at that time. Therefore, Jossfolk was entitled to seek a separate appraisal once such costs were incurred.


Headnotes

[1] The Florida Arbitration Code does not apply to insurance appraisal cases.

[2] Ordinance and Law coverage is not recoverable until the insured incurs or becomes liable for the expense.

Previewing 2 of 5 headnotes on this case. FLexlaw’s editorially structured points of law — every proposition, pinpointed — are reserved for members.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Key Quotes

“Ordinance and Law coverage was "not appraised." This is consistent with Ceballo v. Citizens Property Insurance Corp., 967 So.2d 811 (Fla.2007), which is determinative of this issue.”

Establishes the critical distinction that the appraisers did not appraise (rather than denied) Ordinance and Law coverage, making prior appraisal irrelevant to later incurred costs.

Previewing 1 of 3 key quotes on this case — the court’s exact language, pinpointed for members.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Facts & Procedural History

Jossfolk claimed hurricane damage to his roof and requested appraisal. The initial appraisal allowed replacement of only 220 square feet of roof but e…

The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

© FLexlaw, Inc. — AI-generated enrichments are proprietary. All rights reserved.


Opinion of the Court
WARNER, J.

WARNER, J.

The appellant challenges a final summary judgment in favor of his insurance company in a declaratory judgment action in which he contended that he was entitled to an appraisal of “Ordinance and Law” coverage based on roof damage caused by a hurricane. “Ordinance and Law” is the cost of bringing any structure (here, the roof) into compliance with applicable ordinances or laws.1 The insurance company contended that in a prior proceeding all of the appellant’s damages had been appraised. We reverse the trial court’s summary judgment, because the prior proceeding had not appraised Ordinance and Law coverage, nor could it because none had been incurred at the time of the appraisal.

Appellant Jossfolk submitted a claim to his insurance company, appellee, United Property & Casualty Insurance Company (“United”), alleging that his insured property was damaged in Hurricane Wilma. United found no wind related damages but paid for other damages. Jossfolk disputed the amount and requested that the claim be submitted to appraisal. Each party appointed an appraiser, and the two selected a neutral appraiser. The neutral appraiser submitted a proposed appraisal for *112damages but excluded roof repair. Joss-folk’s appraiser objected to the proposed award because it did not include Ordinance and Law coverage for replacement of the roof, which Jossfolk’s appraiser believed was necessary, based upon his belief that the building department would not allow for any repair of the roof without meeting the current code. The neutral appraiser ultimately increased the award on other damages and allowed for the removal and replacement of two squares of concrete tile roof (220 square feet). The award stated that “Ordinance and Law” was “not appraised.” United made payment to Joss-folk for the amount of the award.

Jossfolk’s contractor then applied to the City of Weston (“the City”) for a roofing repair permit in which he claimed 1359 square feet or about 34% of the roof area needed repair. The roofing repair permit was rejected by the City because the repair exceeded the area allowed by the building code of 25% of the total roof area which could be repaired without requiring replacement of the entire roof system to conform to the current code.

Thereafter, Jossfolk’s representative requested United to pay for the entire roof repair under Ordinance and Law coverage. United responded that “this claim was settled in appraisal on April 27, 2009 in which the umpire rejected your request for law and ordinance.” (Emphasis supplied). As a result, Jossfolk filed a Declaratory Judgment action, seeking a ruling that United must participate in an appraisal for Ordinance and Law coverage. United answered and moved for summary judgment arguing in its motion that the prior appraisal did not include loss for Ordinance and Law coverage; therefore, Jossfolk was not entitled to an appraisal. The trial court granted the motion for summary judgment without making a declaration of Jossfolk’s rights. He appeals.

Summary judgment is proper if there are no genuine issues of material fact and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. The standard of review is de novo. Volusia Cnty. v. Aberdeen at Ormond Beach, L.P., 760 So.2d 126, 130 (Fla.2000).

Although United argued that the arbitration code should apply to this appraisal process, Allstate Insurance Co. v. Suarez, 833 So.2d 762 (Fla.2002), holds that appraisal clause was not an agreement to arbitrate, and the formal procedures of the Arbitration Code are inapplicable. Thus, we reject United’s contention that the only way Jossfolk can challenge the arbitration award is through section 682.13(1), Florida Statutes,2 within the Arbitration Code. See also Citizens Prop. Ins. Corp. v. Cuban-Hebrew Congregation *113 of Miami, Inc., 5 So.3d 709, 712 (Fla. 3d DCA 2009) (citing Suarez, 833 So.2d at 763-66) (“The Florida Supreme Court has held that the Florida Arbitration Code is not applicable to appraisal cases.”).

While United argued that the appraisers denied Ordinance and Law coverage, we conclude that it is clear from the award, as the appraisers stated, Ordinance and Law coverage was “not appraised.” This is consistent with Ceballo v. Citizens Property Insurance Corp., 967 So.2d 811 (Fla.2007), which is determinative of this issue. The Ceballos lost their home to a fire, and Citizens paid the face value of the policy. The Ceballos then sought payment under a supplemental coverage for Ordinance and Law. The parties agreed that the Ceballos were entitled to recover under this supplemental coverage but disagreed as to whether they had to first show an actual loss in order to recover under that provision. The Third District found that there had to be actually incurred expenses in order for them to recover. The Supreme Court agreed: the Ceballos had received the face value for the loss of their home, but that loss did not affect their obligation to show that they incurred an additional loss in order to recover under the supplemental coverage. As the supreme court noted, “‘to incur’ means to become liable for the expense, but not necessarily to have actually expended it.” 967 So.2d at 815.

Ceballo supports Jossfolk’s contention that Ordinance and Law is not recoverable until it is incurred and thus could not have been appraised at the time of the original appraisal. Here, at the time of the original appraisal, Jossfolk had not applied for repairs of the roof. Thus, he had not incurred or become liable for any additional expense until the City had required compliance with current ordinances in order to complete repairs. It was at that point, according to Ceballo that Jossfolk incurred additional loss, for which he had the right to an appraisal.

United also argues that Ordinance and Law coverage is not implicated, because the appraisers allowed for only two square feet of tile replacement, which was considerably less than the 25% of total area which would trigger the City’s requirement that the entire roof be replaced to current ordinance standards. This was not a ground argued by United in its motion for summary judgment. Nevertheless, Jossfolk offered an affidavit from its general contractor stating that the City would require replacement because the original roof tiles were no longer made and could not be replaced. Thus, the evidence did not conclusively refute the factual issues in this case.

For these reasons, we reverse the final summary judgment and remand for further proceedings.

CIKLIN, J, and BLANC, PETER, Associate Judge, concur.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

  • NOA v. Fla. Ins. Guar. Ass'n, 215 So. 3d 141 (Fla. 3d DCA 2017)
    …of, not just 3% of the area of the roof, the appraisal process must surely be the time to offer that evidence—not as an afterthought on the heels of the appraisal. The present case is distinguishable from Jossfolk v. United Property & Casualty Co., 110 So. 3d 110 (Fla. 4th DCA 2013), because in that case the insurer had not raised its “under 25%” roof replacement argument in its motion for summary judgment. Id. at 113. The present case only involves the denial of the insured’s request for a second appraisal—…
  • …PER CURIAM. Affirmed. See Jossfolk v. United Property & Casualty Insurance Company, 110 So. 3d 110 (Fla. 4th DCA 2013). MAY, CIKLIN and LEVINE, JJ„ concur.…
  • Pedersen v. Citizens Prop. Ins. Corp., 157 So. 3d 431 (Fla. 4th DCA 2015)
    …ARD, Associate Judge, concurs. WARNER, J., concurs specially -with opinion. . Ordinance and law damages refer to "the cost of bringing any structure ... into compliance with applicable ordinances or laws.” Jossfolk v. United Prop. & Cas. Ins. Co., 110 So. 3d 110, 111 (Fla. 4th DCA 2013).…

Previewing 3 of 9 citing cases — full citator treatment, depth of discussion, and citing context are member features.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Authorities Cited

Full citator, related cases, and AI research tools

Open in FLexlaw