A summary judgment was obtained in favor of Citizens Property Insurance Corporation for claims seeking damages in excess of $60 million in the form of commissions associated with approximately 76,000 policies taken over by Citizens after the liquidation of the insurance companies previously providing coverage for the subject policies. By arguing that the polices were canceled by virtue of a judicially approved liquidation plan, and then subsequently re-written by Citizens as opposed to being assumed, GrayRobinson was able to successfully argue that any right that Plaintiff, Poe and Associates, had to any commissions terminated when the policies were canceled. This summary judgment is the latest victory of many in this matter. During the course of this case, which has spanned over six years and four different courts, GrayRobinson has been able to obtain many significant rulings, including a ruling that Citizens is entitled to Eleventh Amendment Immunity and is also entitled to assert the home venue privilege. GrayRobinson was also successful in obtaining a Judgment on the Pleadings in Citizens’ favor as to claims raised by Poe and Associates for trademark dilution under the Lanham Act and for Misappropriation of Trade Secrets.
For client SunTrust Bank, GrayRobinson successfully obtained an order compelling individual arbitration in a putative class action case within four months after the Complaint was initially filed, and prior to any class discovery or motion for class certification. Plaintiff asserted a putative class action against SunTrust relative to SunTrust’s alleged actions in suspending some of its customers’ home equity lines of credit. On behalf of SunTrust, GrayRobinson argued that the named Plaintiff’s claims should be arbitrated on a bi-lateral basis in accordance with the arbitration provision and class action waiver included in the loan documents between the Plaintiff and SunTrust. In response, Plaintiff relied on a provision of the newly effective Dodd-Frank Act, which purports to bar pre-dispute arbitration clauses in certain residential mortgage loans. GrayRobinson was successful in defeating this argument by contending that the Dodd-Frank Act could not retroactively apply to Plaintiff’s loan, which was executed prior to the effective date of the subject provision of the Dodd-Frank Act. As a result, this matter has effectively been reduced from a putative class action involving a possible class of thousands of putative plaintiffs, to a single arbitration with a minimal amount in controversy.
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