Tampa Associate Julian A. Brathwaite-Pierre, Esq., secured a dismissal on August 4, 2022 in the First-Party Property matter styled Dry Guys, Inc. a/a/o Sarah Hartman v. Defendant Insurance Company. Defense filed a Motion to Dismiss with Prejudice based on the Plaintiff’s standing as an assignee of benefits. Specifically, the assignment of benefits attached to Plaintiff’s Complaint did not contain within it an itemized per-unit estimate of the services that were to be provided within the four corners of the agreement. Instead, the Plaintiff attached an estimate that was prepared after the date the assignment of benefits was executed by the Insured, as an additional exhibit to the Complaint. While the Motion to Dismiss was pending hearing, the Fourth District Court of Appeal issued their opinion in Kidwell Group, LLC v. United Prop. & Cas. Ins. Co., 343 So. 3d 97 (Fla. 4th DCA 2022), which was directly on point. As such, we filed a notice of authority citing the new opinion in support of our Motion to Dismiss. The client was willing to discuss settlement, but upon receiving a demand from Plaintiff that was far from reasonable given the pending Motion to Dismiss, the client elected to proceed. The morning before the hearing, Plaintiff filed their Notice of Voluntary Dismissal.  Read more