It is settled law, in Florida as elsewhere, that where a Liability Insurance Company does not have a duty to defend under a Liability Insurance Policy, it does not have any duty to indemnify the Insured's settlement of underlying claims, either. In a recent case, a Florida Appellate Court applied this rule and remanded to the Trial Court for entry of judgment in favor of the Liability Insurance Company accordingly: Download Wellcare of Florida, Inc. v. American Int'l Specialty Lines Insurance Co. (Fla. 2d DCA Opinion Filed July 31, 2009), attached Official Slipsheet Opinion at 2-3.
An interesting feature of the opinion in this recent case is that the Appellate Court never once mentioned the amount of the insured's settlement which it made with the underlying Plaintiff. Perhaps one of the parties or their lawyers will leave a Comment and advise whether the amount of that settlement exceeded the Policy Limit or was within it.
This is probably a matter of curiosity more than anything else, at least in this particular case. Whatever the answer, the Florida Appellate Court that issued this decision was obviously unaffected by the amount at issue.
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