Jon Douglas Parrish v. State Farm Florida Insurance Company

Summary

The court held that an appraiser is not “disinterested” under the insurance policy when the appraiser or the appraiser’s firm has a contingency-fee interest in the insured’s recovery. Because the policy did not define the term and neither the surrounding policy language nor the Insurance Code supplied a specialized meaning, the court applied the ordinary meaning of “disinterested” and approved the decision below. LABARGA, J., dissenting, would have found the term ambiguous and construed it in the insured’s favor.