Florida Law Update - United Automobile Insurance Company vs. Ontero

The Florida Third District Court of Appeal recently ruled in United Automobile Insurance Company vs. Ontero, an insured who assigns his personal injury protection (PIP) benefits to a provider does not have standing to later sue his or her insurer for those benefits. In Ontero, the plaintiff, Angel Ontero, suffered injury in an automobile accident. He subsequently sought treatment from a medical provider—assigning his PIP benefits to the clinic. His insurer, however, denied the clinic’s claim for payment. Angel Ontero, and not the clinic, sued for the benefits. The Third District held Ontero did not have standing—reasoning, “. . . an unqualified assignment transfers to the assignee all the interest of the assignor under the assigned contract, and that the assignor has no right to make any claim on the contract once the assignment is complete, unless authorized to do so by the assignee.”