Order Compelling Appraisal Affirmed With Coverage Challenges Addressed By Court

In Sunshine State Insurance Company v. Rawlins (3D09-2842), the Third District affirmed the trial court's order compelling appraisal and simultaneously addressing coverage challenges.  The court stated:

the trial court did not abuse its discretion when it allowed the appraisal to go forward while preserving all of Sunshine States’s rights to contest coverage as a matter of law.

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Moreover, it is the law in our district that the order in which the issues of damages and coverage are to be determined by arbitration and the court is left to the discretion of the trial court.  See Paradise Plaza Condo. Assoc., Inc., v. The Reinsurance Corp. of New York, 685 So. 2d 937 (Fla. 3d DCA 1996). In Paradise Plaza, we recognized that putting the issue of coverage first before arbitration in every case might have adverse effects on the expeditious, out of court disposition of litigation, which is the reason arbitration is a favored remedy. Id. It also saves “judicial resources which might otherwise be required in resolving the factual and legal issues involved in the [coverage issue] by a relatively swift and informal decision by the appraisers as to the amount of the loss.”

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Accordingly, we affirm the trial court’s Order on Plaintiff’s Motion to Compel Appraisal and to Abate the Action. The trial court did not abuse its discretion in allowing the appraisal to go forward on a dual track basis, while preserving all of Sunshine States’s rights to contest coverage as a matter of law.