Philip Fairman and William Kratochvil (Ft. Myers, FL) (Property) obtained a complete Defense Verdict in Lee County, Florida after a two-day trial where a tenant’s damaged office contents were disposed of by the landlord in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian. Florida National Insurance Solutions was the plaintiff and tenant in the office building owed by the landlord and defendant Welcome Home Development Corporation.
On September 28, 2022, Hurricane Ian caused significant damage to the building owed by the defendant Welcome Home Development Corporation. The Hurricane destroyed Plaintiff’s second floor office with rain driven water when the roof over the plaintiff’s rented office was partially torn off. Shortly thereafter, Welcome Home began the remediation process and instructed its contractor to salvage any items from its tenant’s offices which were dry and mold free. After finding nothing salvageable in the Florida National’s office and after assuming Florida National had abandoned the items in their office when they failed to contact Welcome Home, the contractor pursuant to Welcome Home’s instructions collected all the contents in Florida National’s destroyed office and placed them on the curb for disposal with debris from the other offices.
The plaintiff in its lawsuit asserted a defacto data breach claim for its lost business and financial records. The plaintiff also alleged that a large volume customer stopped doing business with Florida National after being informed that Florida National’s business records which contained the client’s proprietary information records were possibly compromised when those records were placed on the curb for disposal during the cleanup process from the hurricane.
At trial, the court granted a Directed Verdict as to two of the counts alleged in the Amended Complaint. On the remaining counts, Plaintiff asked the jury to return a verdict of $1.3 million. After deliberating for approximately thirty minutes, the jury returned a complete Defense Verdict on the remaining counts and awarded the plaintiff zero dollars.
Proposals for Settlement were filed on behalf of the Defendants, as well as Motions to Tax Fees and Costs.