In Horn v. Liberty Ins. Underwriters, Inc., No. 19-12525, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 16279, at *1-3 (11th Cir. June 1, 2021), the Court of Appeals affirmed summary judgment for an insurance carrier regarding a dispute over coverage for a TCPA action.
This appeal requires us to interpret an insurance agreement between iCan Benefit Group, LLC, a Florida company, and its insurance provider, Liberty Insurance Underwriters, Inc. We must determine, under Florida law, whether a policy exclusion barring coverage for “[c]laims . . . arising out of . . . an invasion of privacy” excludes coverage for claims alleging violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 (“TCPA“) in which the complaint repeatedly alleges that the defendants invaded the privacy of the plaintiffs. We hold that the invasion of privacy exclusion unambiguously does so. The insured, iCan, is not before our Court. Rather, the appellants are a class of consumers that sued iCan asserting two causes of action for TCPA violations. After the consumers filed suit, iCan sought coverage for the claims under its insurance policy, but Liberty denied iCan’s request. iCan then settled the lawsuit. In exchange for the class plaintiffs’ promise not to enforce the judgment against iCan, iCan admitted to liability for $60,413,112 in damages, settled the suit, and assigned all of its rights against its insurer, Liberty, to the plaintiffs. When the plaintiffs attempted to enforce the judgment against Liberty, the district court determined that the insurance policy did not cover the settled class claims because the TCPA causes of action were “[c]laims . . . arising out of . . . an invasion of privacy.” Because we agree with the district court’s interpretation of the policy exclusion at issue, we affirm the district court’s grant of summary judgment to Liberty.