October 22, 2025
ShareKelley Kronenberg Secures Appellate Victory Compelling Mandatory Arbitration
Kelley Kronenberg Partner/Business Unit Leader Daniel Montgomery and Legal Assistant Emily Zatorski secured a significant appellate victory for American Integrity Insurance Company of Florida, resulting in the trial court reconsidering its previous order denying the motion to arbitrate.
The case presented unique procedural challenges when Kelley Kronenberg took over the matter after prior counsel lost a motion to compel mandatory mediation-arbitration in the trial court. The insureds had filed a breach of contract action seeking damages for alleged wind damage to their property under a policy with a mandatory mediation-arbitration endorsement.
The trial court had denied the prior firm’s motion to dismiss or alternatively abate and compel mandatory mediation-arbitration, finding insufficient evidence of an enforceable agreement pursuant to section 627.70154, Florida Statutes. This adverse ruling left the case proceeding toward costly litigation despite the policy’s mandatory arbitration provision.
Daniel recognized an opportunity for appellate intervention and filed non-final appeal to Florida’s Fifth District Court of Appeal. Given the limited underlying record for appeal, Daniel strategically sought temporary relinquishment of jurisdiction, asking the appellate court to temporarily return the case to the trial court to hear a motion for reconsideration with additional legal arguments and authority.
The Fifth District Court of Appeal granted the motion on November 15, 2024, relinquishing jurisdiction to the trial court until February 3, 2025, to allow the trial court to hear and rule on the pending motion for reconsideration.
Daniel filed a comprehensive motion for reconsideration presenting two critical legal arguments that had not been fully developed in the prior motion. First, he demonstrated that section 627.70154, Florida Statutes, does not govern the enforceability of arbitration agreements but rather establishes the necessary requirements to include a mandatory mediation-arbitration provision in an insurance policy. The statute addresses what must be included in the provision, not whether a validly included provision is enforceable.
Second, and most decisively, Daniel argued that the arbitration agreement contained delegation language expressly submitting disputes about the agreement itself—including questions of enforceability and validity—to the arbitrator rather than the court. He cited recent controlling authority from the Florida Supreme Court in Airbnb, Inc. v. Doe and the Fourth District Court of Appeal in Meikle v. U-Haul Co. of Fla., establishing that when parties agree to submit gateway issues to the arbitrator, courts lack power to address those issues.
At the May 15, 2025, hearing before Judge Audrey Moran, Daniel presented compelling legal argument demonstrating that the mandatory mediation-arbitration endorsement expressly included “disputes arising from the agreement” and therefore clearly delegated arbitrability questions to the arbitrator.
Judge Moran agreed and granted the motion for reconsideration. In her May 28, 2025 order, the Court found that “when parties agree to submit gateway issues to the arbitrator, the court is without power to address those issues” and that the arbitration agreement “clearly and unmistakenly” evidenced the parties’ intent to delegate validity questions to the arbitrator.
The Court vacated its prior October 2, 2024, order denying the motion to dismiss and entered a new order dismissing the case without prejudice, directing the parties to attend mandatory mediation pursuant to the policy’s endorsement and, if necessary, proceed to confidential binding arbitration.
This victory demonstrates the critical importance of understanding delegation clauses in arbitration agreements and the strategic value of seeking temporary relinquishment of appellate jurisdiction to present additional legal arguments to the trial court. For insurance carriers, this case reinforces that properly drafted mandatory arbitration provisions with delegation language can effectively remove gateway enforceability questions from judicial review, even when an initial motion is denied.
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