Miami Partner Robert Guinn and Associate Andrea Newport-Jones recently received a complete defense verdict in Miami-Dade county.
The case involves an alleged vandalism at an insured’s property. The insured was a landlord, for Government assisted housing, who alleged that his tenants, or some unknown person, broke in and caused vandalism to the interior of the property in June 2020. The insurance carrier investigated the claim, could not verify any information about what the condition of the property was prior to the alleged vandalism, could not locate the tenant, and could not determine when any of the alleged damages occurred. To further complicate matters, the insured was investigated for Government assisted housing fraud; however, the Housing Authority determined that the tenant was present at the property on the date of loss.
Mr. Guinn and Ms. Newport-Jones had to overcome the House Authority’s findings in order to assert and prove to the jury that the tenant had actually moved out prior to the date that the fraud investigation determined. Ultimately the jury did not even have to consider whether the tenant was present, as they found that Plaintiff could not even prove their initial burden of showing a vandalism loss during the policy period.
The jury returned a complete defense verdict in a very short amount of time.
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