Florida/Georgia Personal Injury & Workers Compensation

...t of medical expenses under PIP coverage was admissible to prove its liability for the injury under the UM coverage contained in the policy. Judge Torpy noted that, in his view, the circuit court had correctly ruled the evidence inadmissible because section 90.409, Florida Statutes (2003), "prohibits the introduction of `[e]vidence of furnishing, or offering, or promising to pay medical or hospital expenses....

...Appellant’s medical care providers after Appellant filed suit; 2) finding Appellant lacked standing to assert her waiver and confession of judgment arguments because she assigned her rights to PIP benefits to her medical care providers; 3) interpreting section 90.409, Florida Statutes, to preclude evidence of the PIP payments in support of those arguments; and 4) finding that there were no genuine issues of material fact as to the misrepresentation issue....

...Addressing Appellant’s waiver and confession of judgment arguments, the court found that Appellant had “no standing to bring suit for [PIP] benefits under the policy as she assigned those benefits to her treating physicians.” Finally, the court found that section 90.409, Florida Statutes, “prohibits the introduction of evidence of furnishing; offering; or promising to pay medical or hospital expense to prove liability....

...MGA’s assertion, the insurance contract was in fact valid -- or whether there existed some other reason for MGA’s decision to make the payments. This is a question for the trial court to resolve. 9  Section 90.409, Florida Statutes Section 90.409, Florida Statutes, in its entirety, provides: Evidence of furnishing, or offering or promising to pay, medical or hospital expenses or other damages occasioned by an injury or accident is inadmissible to prove liabil...

...The case before us involves a contract or coverage dispute, which was, as the Shelton court expressly pointed out, not at issue in that case, whereas Shelton involved a question of the admissibility of evidence as to damages sounding in tort. 1 Thus, in the context of section 90.409, “liability” clearly refers to an insured’s (or, in a UM claim, uninsured motorist’s) responsibility for causing injury or accident, not for an insurer’s obligations to its insured pursuant to an insurance contract.2 Conflating an insured’s liability for causing injury or accident with an insurer’s contract obligation disregards the policy behind the rule codified in section 90.409, as explained by the supreme court in Meyer. Thus, the trial court erred by ruling the PIP ledger was inadmissible under these circumstances. Conclusion 1 Although Shelton does not support MGA’s interpretation of section 90.409, the “unique policy considerations” discussed in the case may bear some relevance on the issue of why MGA made the PIP payments it did despite rescinding the contract. 2 The Shelton court cited with approval Judge Torpy’s concu...

...se of proving USAA's liability for the injury under the uninsured motorist component of its policy. This issue is not addressed in Caruso. In my view, the lower court quite correctly ruled that this evidence could not be introduced for this purpose. Section 90.409 (2003), Florida Statutes, prohibits the introduction of "[e]vidence of furnishing, or offering or promising to pay medical or hospital expenses ......

testimony should have been excluded under section 90.-409, Florida Statutes (1991), which provides: Evidence