American Coastal Insurance Company v. San Marco Villas Condominium Association, Inc.

Summary

The court held that the policy gave San Marco a contractual right to appraisal because the parties disputed the amount of damage caused by a covered hurricane. It further held that, under the policy's retained-rights provision, a trial court has discretion to decide whether coverage issues or amount-of-loss issues should be resolved first, rather than applying an inflexible coverage-first rule. The court approved the decision compelling appraisal and disapproved the conflicting decisions to the extent inconsistent with its ruling.