Universal Property & Casualty Insurance Company v. Orlando Cisneros Dameras

Summary

The Florida Third District Court of Appeal reviewed an award of attorneys’ fees and costs entered after a settlement in an insurance dispute. The court affirmed the lodestar amount, reversed the 2.5 contingency risk multiplier for lack of supporting evidence, and remanded for reconsideration of costs awarded for non-testifying expert witnesses.

Holdings

1. The trial court did not abuse its discretion in calculating the lodestar because it considered the relevant Rowe and Quanstrom factors and supported the hourly rates and hours with sufficient factual findings.
2. The trial court lacked sufficient evidentiary support to impose the 2.5 contingency-risk multiplier and, on this record, could not impose any multiplier.
3. The trial court erred in awarding costs for the two experts who were retained to prepare for trial but did not testify without findings that their fees were reasonably necessary for trial preparation.
4. The challenge was unpreserved because Universal did not raise it below or in its motion for rehearing.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the trial court's lodestar attorney-fee calculation was supported by competent evidence and adequate factual findings.
2. Whether the trial court had sufficient evidence under Florida's contingency-risk-multiplier standards to impose a 2.5 multiplier.
3. Whether fees for non-testifying expert witnesses were taxable as costs under section 92.231(2), Florida Statutes.
4. Whether Universal preserved its separate challenge to the $96,000 fee awarded for a testifying fee expert.

Disposition

reversed_and_remanded