Court Sides with Florida Regulator Over Texas Insurer

A Texas-based workers’ compensation insurer has lost its appeal of rulings by the Florida insurance commissioner that have blocked it from doing business in the state.

On Jan 20, without explanation, a three-judge panel in Florida’s First District Court of Appeal affirmed the regulatory decisions by Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty, who in a separate suit is being accused of having a personal vendetta against the insurer, Dallas National Insurance Co. and its owner, Charles David Wood.

Wood has accused McCarty and his Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR) of “trumping up” charges that he is “incompetent” and “untrustworthy” and that his proposal for a Florida license amounts to an illegal fronting operation as pretexts for twice rejecting his application to write insurance.

The court has now upheld those decisions by McCarty to deny a license.

The remaining suit by Wood alleging a personal vendetta was filed in the U.S. District Court for Northern Florida just days before the regulatory appeal case was heard.

Wood and Dallas National claim they qualify to write insurance in Florida but have been unfairly held to a higher standard than other licensees. They maintain that McCarty is pursuing a vendetta because of a 2001 attempt by Wood to do business with another insurer, Bankers Insurance, a firm with which McCarty had a legal dispute 15 years agot before he was named commissioner.