Help

BI’s Article search uses Boolean search capabilities. If you are not familiar with these principles, here are some quick tips.

To search specifically for more than one word, put the search term in quotation marks. For example, “workers compensation”. This will limit your search to that combination of words.

To search for a combination of terms, use quotations and the & symbol. For example, “hurricane” & “loss”.

Login Register Subscribe

Insurance payout for Estefan hotel damages reduced

Reprints
Gloria Estefan

A Florida appeals court has reversed an earlier ruling and held singer Gloria Estefan’s company is not entitled to recover $5.6 million from an American International Group Inc. unit in connection with hurricane damage to a hotel she owns with her husband.

The issue in the long-running litigation in Landmark American Insurance Co. v. Pin-Pon Corp. was whether Landmark, an AIG unit, was required to pay for upgrades to the Vero Beach hotel that were planned before hurricanes Frances and Jeanne struck in 2004.

A Florida state court in Vero Beach ruled the hotel was entitled to the $5.6 million in December 2017.

In its Wednesday ruling reversing that judgment, the West Palm Beach, Florida-based appeals court focused on a pretrial stipulation in which Pin-Pon had agreed the Landmark policy coverage was limited to $2.5 million for code upgrade costs per hurricane. In accordance with the stipulation, the ruling said, Pin-Pon agreed to seek $2.5 million for each hurricane.

Pin-Pon subsequently moved to withdraw this stipulation, “arguing it had misinterpreted the insurance policy. The trial court apparently accepted the withdrawal,” before awarding the company the $5.6 million judgment in connection with Hurricane Frances, said the ruling.

“Pin-Pon’s purported mistake of law (or subsequent change in its interpretation of the policy) is not good cause for withdrawal for its factual stipulation … Therefore, it should have remained bound to the factual stipulation,” said the appeals court.

It reversed and remanded the $5.6 million judgment for a reduction in Landmark’s liability to $2.5 million, less $698,774.31 it has already paid, and a recalculation of pre- and post-judgment interest.

In another insurance coverage case involving the couple, in 2018 Great American Insurance Co. prevailed in a dispute with them over property damage to a Miami Beach restaurant they owned, with a federal district court ruling coverage was precluded by policy language. 

 

Read Next

  • Insurer wins dispute over Estefan restaurant losses

    Great American Insurance Co. has prevailed in a dispute with singer Gloria Estefan and her husband over property damage to a Miami Beach restaurant owned by the couple, with a federal district court ruling coverage was precluded by policy language.