UNITED AUTOMOBILE INSURANCE COMPANY AND JAMES BAYLIS, PETITIONERS,
v.
RIVERSIDE MEDICAL ASSOCIATES, INC., A/A/O NORMANDEL BURKE, ISMAIL SARABI AND JORGE DE LA O, RESPONDENTS
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The Fourth District Court of Appeal granted certiorari review as to premature bad faith discovery requests but dismissed the petition challenging the denial of a motion to dismiss, holding that discovery related to claims handling is premature until coverage and damages are determined on the underlying claim.
Discovery related to an insurer's claims file and business practices regarding claims handling is not permitted until the obligation to provide coverage and damages has been determined on the underlying claim.
[1] Discovery related to an insurer's claims file and business practices regarding claims handling is premature and not permitted until the obligation to provide coverage and…
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“until the obligation to provide coverage and damages has been determined, a party is not entitled to discovery related to the claims file[] or to the insurer's business policies or practices regarding handling of claims”
The court cited State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co. v. Tranchese to establish the standard for premature bad faith discovery.
United Automobile Insurance Company and James Baylis sought certiorari review of a circuit court order denying their motion to dismiss a bad faith act…
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Defendants United Automobile Insurance Company and James Baylis seek cer-*286tiorari review of the circuit court’s nonfinal order: (1) denying their motion to dismiss the plaintiffs premature bad faith action; and (2) overruling their objections to the plaintiffs premature bad faith discovery requests.
We grant the petition as to the discovery objections. See State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co. v. Tranchese, 49 So.3d 809, 810 (Fla. 4th DCA 2010) (granting petition for certiorari on the basis that, “until the obligation to provide coverage and damages has been determined, a party is not entitled to discovery related to the claims file[] or to the insurer’s business policies or practices regarding handling of claims”) (citation omitted).
We dismiss the petition as to the denial of the motion to dismiss. See State Farm Ins. Co. v. Ulrich, 120 So.3d 217, 219 (Fla. 4th DCA 2013) (“A nonfinal order denying a motion to dismiss an insurance bad faith action is not subject to interlocutory review via petition for writ of certiorari.”). However, our dismissal is without prejudice to the defendants’ moving to abate the bad faith action. See Tranchese, 49 So.3d at 810 (“We grant the petition [for certio-rari] as to the abatement, because the final determination of coverage and damages for the underlying claim has not been made, which must precede a statutory bad faith action.”).
Petition granted in part, dismissed in part.
GROSS, CIKLIN and GERBER, JJ., concur.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Authorities Cited
- State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co. v. Tranchese, 49 So. 3d 809 (Fla. 4th DCA 2010)
- State Farm Ins. Co. v. Ulrich, 120 So. 3d 217 (Fla. 4th DCA 2013)