In Universal Property & Casualty Insurance Co. v. Navlen, 4D2022-1590, the Fourth District reversed the trial court’s order denying Universal’s motion to strike the insureds’ expert witness and remanded for a new trial, holding that the expert’s reliance on experience and personal knowledge to form his opinion didn’t pass muster under the Daubert standard codified by Section 90.702, Florida Statutes. The case arose out of the insureds’ claim for wind damage to their roof, which Universal concluded fell below the policy deductible. Before trial, Universal moved to exclude the insured’s expert  he testified at deposition that he did not inspect the insured’s roof before it was replaced, formed opinions based on inspecting neighboring roofs, took no position about the percentage of the roof that was damaged, relied on wind speed measurements taken 17 miles from the property, based his opinion on “Benchmark” data that was not included in his report, and could not rule out other causes of the roof damage. The appellate court concluded the expert’s opinion didn’t satisfy Daubert because the insureds did not offer any independent corroboration that the “Benchmark” data, which the expert claimed he used “all the time,” was sufficiently reliable. Similarly, the court faulted the expert for failing to conduct any calculation or use any other method to support his opinion that more than 25% of the roof was damaged, noting that he merely “guestimated” based on reviewing photos. The opinion reinforces the adage that while an expert may rely on experience and personal knowledge in forming an opinion, they must establish how the experience led to their conclusion, why the experience is a sufficient basis for the opinion, and how the experience was reliably applied to the facts.

Read the full opinion here.