Progressive Corporation’s appeal was dismissed by the state appeals panel in Florida earlier this week. The auto insurer is accused of piling windshield replacement companies with the cost of insurance appraisals, according to court documents.
Two years ago four companies sued Progressive in a county court claiming the company was in breach of contract for only paying a portion of covered windshield repairs. The four windshield replacement companies are:
- SHL Enterprises LLC,
- Shazam Auto Glass LLC,
- Glassmetics LLC, and
- Lloyd’s of Shelton Auto Glass LLC
According to Progressive, its company policy includes an appraisal provision that works to resolve repair cost disputes. The windshield replacement companies claimed the appraisal provisions violated state law. According to the panel, the county court agreed and considered the provisions unenforceable because it requires windshield companies to pay for appraisal costs. The court claimed this was equivalent to a deductible.
The appeals panel claimed the lower courts, who had previously viewed the case, misunderstood state laws after these instances:
- The lower courts referred to the company’s cost-shifting as a deductible, and
- Accused Progressive of not citing appellate case law before it rejected the appeal.
“By improperly restricting the scope of its own certiorari review, the circuit court did not engage in a meaningful analysis of the county court’s order and thus could not have concluded that there was no departure from the essential requirements of the law,” the panel said in court documents.
