Fernandez Gonzalez Asociados, LLC v. Depositors Insurance Company

Summary

The United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas addressed motions concerning appraisal of insurance losses arising from alleged hail and windstorm damage. The court denied the plaintiff’s request to substitute its appraiser, struck without prejudice its motion to compel or clarify appraisal concerning lost rental income for failure to comply with conferral procedures, and granted abatement of the action pending appraisal. The court also denied without prejudice the defendant’s motion concerning attorney’s fees and denied as moot the plaintiff’s request for oral argument.

Holdings

1. FGA could not substitute its appraiser because the policy required FGA to select a competent and impartial appraiser and pay that appraiser's fees, and FGA failed to establish a qualifying lack of impartiality or other compelling reason for substitution.
2. The court struck FGA's motion to compel or clarify appraisal because FGA failed to demonstrate a conference or serious, timely, good-faith effort to resolve the dispute before filing the opposed motion.
3. Abatement was appropriate because appraisal could resolve the breach-of-contract dispute and potentially moot or otherwise affect FGA's extra-contractual insurance claims.

Questions Presented

1. Whether FGA could substitute a new appraiser for its appointed appraiser under the insurance policy.
2. Whether FGA's motion to compel or clarify appraisal should be considered when FGA failed to comply with applicable conferral and certificate-of-conference procedures.
3. Whether the court should abate the contractual and extra-contractual insurance claims pending completion of the appraisal process.

Disposition

other