IDS Property Casualty Insurance Class Certification Reversed, Remanded

As previously reported, the Third District Court of Appeal for the State of Florida recently reversed and remanded the class action certification for MSPA Claims 1, LLC v. Ocean Harbor. On October 24, 2018, the same Court reversed and remanded the only other certified class action suit brought by MSPA Claims 1, LLC.

Citing Ocean Harbor specifically, the Third District Court again opined that in this case, MSPA has failed to establish that common issues predominate over individual issues. Applying the same rationale as Ocean Harbor, the Court noted “to quantify the claims of the putative class members will require a comprehensive and distinct analysis of each underlying PIP claim and automobile accident…Plainly this is one of those cases where merely proving entitlement to reimbursement from IDS for payments made by Florida Healthcare Plus on behalf of MA., in no way proves the cases of the other class members.” IDS Prop. Cas. Ins. Co. v. MSPA Claims 1, LLC, 2018 Fla. App. LEXIS 15107

The Court then went on to reverse as well on the alternate ground of standing. Harkening back to MSPA Claims 1, LLC. v United Auto. Ins. Co., 204  F. Supp. 3d 1342, 1345 (S.D. Fla. 2016), the Court ruled that the approvals of assignment did not occur until after the initial complaint had been filed. The parties in question did not assign benefits until June 1, 2016 as a part of a settlement agreement. However, MSPA filed its amended complaint on March 8, 2016, several months prior to the Receiver’s approval. As previously found, standing must exist at the inception of a case. As IDS had based its attack on standing on validity of the assignment, standing was not present[1].

As such, the Court reversed and remanded for proceedings consistent with the opinion.

It would be remiss to not point out that this was MSP Recovery’s only other certified class action suit. With its reversal and remand, the future of these class action proceedings seems dimmer and dimmer, at least in the Third District Court of Appeal for the State of Florida.

 

[1] The court does note that this case does differ from MSP Recovery LLC v. Allstate Insurance Co., 835 F. 3d 1351 (11^th Circ. 2016) which similarly argued lack of standing. In that IDS argued that MSPA’s private cause of action against IDS was barred by the federal anti-assignment statue. This was rejected by the Eleventh Circuit.