CITIZENS PROPERTY INSURANCE CORPORATION
v.
MAYLIN RODRIGUEZ

Fla. 3d DCA | 2024-03-13
No. 2023-0312
48 Fla. L. Weekly D2240 Florida District Court of Appeal, Third District (2024) Positive Treatment
Also reported at: 373 So. 3d 636
Cited by 4 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.


Holding

A directed verdict is improper where expert testimony creates a genuine issue of material fact regarding whether damage resulted from shock waves or soil movement, thereby implicating a policy exclusion.


Headnotes

[1] A directed verdict is improper when expert testimony regarding the cause of property damage creates a genuine issue of material fact as to whether damage resulted from a…

Previewing 1 of 1 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

“jury could reasonably have concluded that it was the shock waves, and not soil or earth movement, that shook the house and caused damage to the Insured's home”

Court citation to Tower Hill Prime Ins. v. Bermudez, 48 Fla. L. Weekly D2240 (Fla. 3d DCA Nov. 29, 2023), explaining the basis for affirming denial of directed verdict on soil movement exclusion

Facts & Procedural History

Citizens Property Insurance Corporation appealed a trial court decision denying its motion for directed verdict on a soil movement exclusion in a home…

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

The Nation Law Firm and Mark A. Nation and Paul W. Pritchard (Longwood), for appellee. Before FERNANDEZ, GORDO and LOBREE, JJ.

PER CURIAM.

Affirmed. See Tower Hill Prime Ins. v. Bermudez, 48 Fla. L. Weekly

D2240, 2023 WL 8246151, *3 (Fla. 3d DCA Nov. 29, 2023) (affirming trial court’s denial of insurer’s motion for directed verdict on policy’s soil movement exclusion because based on experts’ testimony “jury could reasonably have concluded that it was the shock waves, and not soil or earth movement, that shook the house and caused damage to the Insured's home”); Feldman v. Citizens Prop. Ins. Corp., 373 So. 3d 636 (Fla. 4th DCA

2023) (explaining that directed verdict is proper on insured’s initial burden of proof to show physical loss occurred during policy period where there is no conflicting evidence about when damage occurred and no view of evidence would support verdict for insurer on issue); Linn v. Fossum, 946 So. 2d 1032,

1036 (Fla. 2006) (applying harmless error analysis to defendant’s improper bolstering of expert witness testimony).


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

  • Citizens Prop. Ins. Corp. v. Maylin Rodriguez, 48 Fla. L. Weekly D2240 (Fla. 3d DCA 2024)
    …nt exclusion because based on experts’ testimony “jury could reasonably have concluded that it was the shock waves, and not soil or earth movement, that shook the house and caused damage to the Insured's home”); Feldman v. Citizens Prop. Ins. Corp., 373 So. 3d 636 (Fla. 4th DCA 2023) (explaining that directed verdict is proper on insured’s initial burden of proof to show physical loss occurred during policy period where there is no conflicting evidence about when damage occurred and no view of evidence would…
    1 / 2
  • …. 4th DCA 2020)). After the insured has proved a loss occurred during the policy period, to deny an insured’s claim of loss, the insurer then “has the burden to prove the damage is excluded from the coverage.” Feldman v. Citizens Prop. Ins. Corp., 373 So. 3d 636, 639 (Fla. 4th DCA 2023) (citing Merrick Pres. Condo. Ass’n, Inc. v. Cypress Prop. & Cas. Ins. Co., 315 So. 3d 45, 47 (Fla. 4th DCA 2021)); Jones v. Federated Nat’l Ins. Co., 235 So. 3d 936, 940 (Fla. 4th DCA 2018) (same); Mejia v. Citizens Prop. In…

Authorities Cited

Full citator, related cases, and AI research tools

Open in FLexlaw