AMERICAN COASTAL INSURANCE COMPANY v. LA RIVE GAUCHE CONDOMINIUM ASSOCIATION, INC.

Third District Court of Appeal State of Florida

Opinion filed May 26, 2021. Not final until disposition of timely filed motion for rehearing.

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No. 3D20-1230 Lower Tribunal No. 19-33925 ________________

American Coastal Insurance Company, Appellant,

vs.

La Rive Gauche Condominium Association, Inc., et al., Appellees.

An Appeal from a non-final order from the Circuit Court for Miami- Dade County, Martin Zilber, Judge.

White & Case LLP, and Raoul G. Cantero and Ryan A. Ulloa; Berk, Merchant & Sims PLC, and Evelyn M. Merchant and Laura C. Tapia, for appellant.

Alvarez, Feltman, Da Silva & Costa, P.L., and Paul B. Feltman, for appellees.

Before FERNANDEZ, HENDON, and BOKOR, JJ.

PER CURIAM.

Affirmed. Paradise Plaza Condo. Ass’n Inc. v. Reinsurance Corp. of New York, 685 So. 2d 937, 941 (Fla. 3d DCA 1996) (“All in all, we believe that the issue of the order in which the issues of damages and coverage are to be determined respectively by arbitration and the court should be left within the discretion of the trial judge…. In exercising that discretion, the trial court may consider all of the elements to which we have referred, including the costs involved and the relative importance and viability of the damages and the coverage issues, respectively. In this instance, we find no abuse of discretion in the order for appraisal to proceed first.”); see also Sunshine State Ins. Co. v. Rawlins, 34 So. 3d 753, 754-55 (Fla. 3d DCA 2010) (affirming Paradise Plaza’s holding that “it is the law in our district that the order in which the issues of damages and coverage are to be determined by arbitration and the court is left to the discretion of the trial court”).