Montoya and Kamberger of Bryson Harris Suciu DeMay Get Insurance Claim Denial Overturned For Florida Homeowners

From left to right: Marie Augustin, Stephanie Corbin, Pierre Louis, Patrick Montoya and Markus Kamberger.

Citizens Property Insurance Corporation to pay for damages caused by Hurricane Ian after initially denying the claim

BROWARD COUNTY, FL, UNITED STATES, October 13, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- It took 21 months, but Bryan Guerra and Meghan Fitzgerald of Broward County, Florida will have hurricane damage to their home paid by their insurance company after all. The couple were represented by Patrick Montoya and Markus Kamberger of Bryson Harris Suciu DeMay in a case that took nearly half a million dollars to pay a $45,950.93 insurance claim.

“The needle moved a little more towards justice with this decision,” says lead counsel Patrick Montoya. “These homeowners were delayed and delayed by their insurance company and then denied a claim that cost them a lot of savings to fix. Today, the insurance company is going to pay that bill, and another bill for the cost of holding them accountable.”

In this first party property case, Citizens Property Insurance Corporation denied their customers’ claim for home damage sustained by a covered peril – a hurricane. When Hurricane Ian occurred in 2022, the damage was not immediately noticeable. In March of 2024, the couple experienced damage to their home caused by a leaking roof and was told that the damage had resulted from the hurricane. They filed an insurance claim.

Citizens Property Insurance decided that it was too late for the homeowners to make a claim, and thus, the damage could not be attributed to the hurricane, a covered peril. Instead, it was likely a result of wear and tear which was not covered by their insurance. In January 2025, a breach of contract lawsuit was filed, and when the case was proceeding to trial, Montoya and Kamberger joined the case.

“Water needs times to intrude into and through each layer of the roof,” explains senior counsel attorney Markus Kamberger. “That doesn’t always happen instantly. The roof was within its its lifespan, and the experts who deal with this kind of damage attributed it to the hurricane.”

In its decision, the jury found that the there was direct physical loss to the property during the insurance policy period, and not general wear and tear as proffered by the insurance company.

The judgment for the plaintiffs was just over $45,000, but also included attorney fees, which are likely to exceed $400,000 for more than two years of legal work, expert testimony, wind pattern evidence and repair estimates, to get justice for the homeowners. While the Bryson attorneys were confident that representing this couple was the right thing to do, there were challenges associated with a late notice filing, which requires overcoming the presumed prejudice to the insurance carrier and involves more complicated instructions for the jury.

“We knew we could connect everything to Hurricane Ian,” explains Montoya, “and we knew we could help these people fight this huge company. Another firm that works with us provided us with the case for trial purposes. This is what we do – we’re trial attorneys – we go to trial. This was a David and Goliath case, and the Davids can still win.”

The jury verdict was issued on October 8, 2026 in the Circuit Court of the 17th Judicial Circuit in and for Broward County, Florida, for Case No.: CACE-25-000605.

Patrick Montoya
Bryson Harris Suciu DeMay
+1 305-458-1797
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