Plaintiff MSPA, on behalf of a class of Medicare Advantage Organizations (“MAOs”), filed a class action against personal injury protection (“PIP”) insurer Ocean Harbor Casualty Insurance Company, arguing that the MAOs were entitled to recover double damages for unpaid PIP benefits under the Medicare Secondary Payer Act.
On appeal, the Florida Justice Reform Institute filed an amicus curiae brief in support of Ocean Harbor, arguing that the Third District should overturn the class action certification. In certifying the MAO class, the Institute said, the trial court had failed to rigorously apply Florida’s class action certification requirements which are necessary to protect defendants’ due process rights.
The Third District agreed that class certification was inappropriate, and reversed and remanded. The Third District found that MSPA’s burden of proof to establish Ocean Harbor’s liability “will necessarily devolve into a series of mini-trials,” foreclosing a finding that class issues predominate over individual ones and thus precluding class treatment.
FJRI represented by Suzanne Youmans Labrit of Shutts & Bowen LLP and William W. Large.