January 19, 2007 10:25 AM |
Posted by D. Matthew Allen |
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In recent months, the Florida courts have issued several opinions in windstorm class actions. Here are two.
In Litvak v. Scylla Properties, LLC, 946 So. 2d 1165 (Fla. 1st DCA 2006), the First District reversed the denial of unnamed class members' motion to intervene in a class action seeking to recover under insurance policies for losses incurred during the 2004 hurricane season. The trial court had certified a mandatory, no-opt out class and subclasses. The defendant opposed the intervention on the ground that intervenors must take a lawsuit as they find it, a long-standing rule that prevents a stranger from coming late to litigation and attempting to reshape it. The court of appeal ruled that this principle did not apply because the unnamed class members who sought intervention were not strangers to the lawsuit, but already parties. The court then reversed the class certification because the intervenors had not had a chance to make their arguments opposing it.
While the intervenor's appeal was pending, the trial court granted final judgment to the class. In Citizens Property Ins. Corp. v. Scylla Properties, LLC, 946 So. 2d 1179 (Fla. 1st DCA 2006), the First District reversed this decision. Because the class certification had been vacated, "entry of final judgment at this juncture would bind nobody not actually named as a party."
Because the judgment construed the policy language, it further would render the appellate court's decision reversing the class certification nugatory.