On February 28, 2007, in
Freedom Life Ins. Co. v. Wallant, -- So. 2d --, 2007 WL 6000629 (Fla. 4th DCA 2007), the Fourth District rejected the defendant Freedom’s second attempt to send the case to arbitration. This is the second appellate decision in the case. In 2004, the court affirmed class certification under Rule 1.220(b)(3).
See Freedom Life Ins. Co. v. Wallant, 891 So. 2d 1109 (Fla. 4th DCA 2004). Before the class was certified, the trial court had denied Freedom’s motion to compel arbitration. Freedom did not appeal that decision. After class certification, Freedom again moved to compel arbitration, and that motion was again denied. This time Freedom appealed, but the Fourth District dismissed the appeal as being an improper attempt to have another bite at the apple. The class certification did not change the circumstances since the possibility existed when the class action complaint was filed that a class eventually would be certified. The lesson is: as the title of this post says, strike while the iron is hot. File your appeal the first time around because you won’t get a second chance.