{"id":896405,"date":"2019-09-04T11:52:23","date_gmt":"2019-09-04T17:52:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/?p=896405"},"modified":"2019-09-04T11:52:30","modified_gmt":"2019-09-04T17:52:30","slug":"retained-public-adjuster-not-disinterested-appraiser","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/retained-public-adjuster-not-disinterested-appraiser\/","title":{"rendered":"New Florida Case Alert: Retained Public Adjuster Was Not \u201cDisinterested\u201d Appraiser"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>James Chin and Jocelyn Demars | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.catlawnavigator.com\/p\/new-florida-case-alert-retained-public.html\">Zelle LLP<\/a> | August 29, 2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>First-party property policies typically include appraisal provisions requiring each party to appoint a \u201cdisinterested\u201d or \u201cimpartial\u201d appraiser. A Florida appellate court recently addressed the question of what makes a potential appraiser \u201cdisinterested\u201d in a case involving a Hurricane Irma claim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Florida\u2019s Third District Court of Appeals held that a fiduciary, like a public adjuster who is in a contractual agent-principal relationship with a policyholder, cannot serve as a \u201cdisinterested\u201d appraiser, as a matter of law.\u00a0<em>State Farm Fla. Ins. Co. v. Sanders<\/em>, No. 3D19-927, &#8212; So. 3d &#8212;-, 2019 WL 3309217, at *4 (Fla. 3d DCA July 24, 2019).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Underlying Facts and Procedural Background\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Sanders\u00a0<\/em>involved a Hurricane Irma claim under a State Farm homeowners policy.\u00a0<em>Id<\/em>. at *1. Appraisal was invoked. Id. The policy\u2019s appraisal provision stated, \u201cEach party will select a qualified, disinterested appraiser.\u201d\u00a0<em>Id<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The policyholders appointed Gian Debernardi of 911 Claims Corporation as appraiser.\u00a0<em>Id<\/em>. A contract between the policyholders and 911 Claims Corporation stated that Debernardi would serve as an agent and representative of the policyholders \u201cto adjust, appraise, advise and assist in the settlement of the loss.\u201d\u00a0<em>Id<\/em>. The contract assigned 10% of the amount recovered to 911 Claims Corporation.<em>Id<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Pre-appraisal, Debernardi inspected the subject property, notified State Farm of the claim, and prepared a damage estimate.\u00a0<em>Id<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>State Farm challenged Debernardi\u2019s appointment, arguing he was not \u201cdisinterested\u201d because of (1) the agent\/principal relationship with the policyholders, (2) the continency fee arrangement, and (3) his earlier issued estimate.\u00a0<em>Id<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The trial court disagreed and ordered that the appointment was permitted.\u00a0<em>Id<\/em>. The appellate court reversed.\u00a0<em>Id<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Appellate Court\u2019s Legal Analysis<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The appellate court held that allowing Debernardi to serve as appraiser would give rise to a harm that could not be remedied on appeal, due to the binding nature of appraisals.\u00a0<em>Id<\/em>., at *2. (citing\u00a0<em>State Farm Fire &amp; Cas. Co. v. Licea<\/em>, 685 So. 2d 1285, 1287-88 (Fla. 1996)).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Next, the appellate court considered the issue of whether Debernardi could qualify as a \u201cdisinterested\u201d appraiser.\u00a0<em>Id<\/em>., at *2. Citing\u00a0<em>Fla. Ins. Guar. Ass\u2019n v. Branco<\/em>, 148 So. 3d 488, 491 (Fla. 5th DCA 2014), the appellate court explained that a \u201cdisinterested\u201d appraiser requirement in an insurance policy conveys a \u201cclear intention to restrict appraisers to people who are, in fact, disinterested.\u201d\u00a0<em>Id<\/em>., at *2. \u201cDisinterested\u201d has been defined as \u201c[f]ree from bias, prejudice, or partiality; not having a pecuniary interest.\u201d\u00a0<em>Id<\/em>., at *2 (citations omitted). The Branco court held that attorneys cannot serve as their clients\u2019 \u201cdisinterested\u201d appraisers due to the fiduciary and confidential relationship between attorneys and clients.\u00a0<em>Id<\/em>., at *3.<br>Likewise, the appellate court in Sanders determined Debernardi could not serve as the policyholders\u2019 \u201cdisinterested appraiser\u201d because he was their agent and public adjuster.\u00a0<em>Id<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Notably, the appellate court also held that, based upon his continency fee arrangement with the policyholders, Debernardi could not serve as a \u201cdisinterested\u201d appraiser because he had a \u201cfinancial interest in whether or not the [policyholders] recover from State Farm and how much they recover.\u201d\u00a0<em>Id<\/em>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>James Chin and Jocelyn Demars | Zelle LLP | August 29, 2019 First-party property policies typically include appraisal provisions requiring each party to appoint a \u201cdisinterested\u201d or \u201cimpartial\u201d appraiser. A Florida appellate court recently addressed the question of what makes a potential appraiser \u201cdisinterested\u201d in a case involving a Hurricane Irma claim. Florida\u2019s Third District&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/retained-public-adjuster-not-disinterested-appraiser\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">New Florida Case Alert: Retained Public Adjuster Was Not \u201cDisinterested\u201d Appraiser<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10235],"tags":[9895,94,10256],"class_list":["post-896405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-insurance-appraisal","tag-advise-consult","tag-florida","tag-insurance-appraiser","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>New Florida Case Alert: Retained Public Adjuster Was Not \u201cDisinterested\u201d Appraiser - Advise &amp; 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