Nicholas P. Mizell
How Judge Mizell rules, drawn from 4 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
How Judge Mizell decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
Florida first-party property-insurance practice is the core of his Fort Myers docket: he treats a policy's appraisal clause as a mandatory, contractually-stipulated forum for amount-of-loss disputes, compels appraisal once the insured substantially complies with post-loss conditions and the insurer has had a reasonable chance to investigate, and refuses to let an insurer wield post-loss conditions (such as an EUO it has declined) as a 'sword.' Coverage and fraud defenses are preserved for after appraisal.
“when an insurance policy contains an appraisal provision, the right to appraisal is not permissive but is instead mandatory, so once a demand for appraisal is made, neither party has the right to deny that demand.”
Before recommending default judgment, verifies subject-matter jurisdiction, personal jurisdiction, service, and whether the complaint states a plausible claim; default does not make judgment automatic.
“there must be strict compliance with the legal prerequisites establishing the court’s power to render the judgment.”
For nonparty discovery, he requires the movant to establish relevance and proportionality under Rules 45 and 26. Prior production in a different lawsuit does not by itself make documents responsive where the cases involve different claims, defendants, and time periods.
“Toptal has not met its burden of proving that the 271 at-issue documents are relevant or responsive to the Andela subpoena.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“For the following reasons, the Court recommends that the Motion for Default Judgment (Doc. 9) be granted. ... GSI has pleaded plausible facts showing that it prevailed in an arbitration against Dogali ... Therefore, the Court finds a sufficient basis in the pleadings for a default judgment to enforce the arbitration award against Dogali.”
“The motion to compel appraisal (Doc. 35) is GRANTED. For the amount of loss that remains in dispute (that is, excluding the roof claim), the parties are ordered to conduct an appraisal as prescribed by the appraisal provisions of the insurance policy.”
“For these reasons, Toptal's motion to compel (Doc. 1) is DENIED.”
“Toptal's request for oral argument as to its motion to compel (Doc. 16) is DENIED as moot.”
“Accordingly, the court should GRANT the motion for default judgment (Doc. 31); declare that Prime Property and Casualty Insurance Inc. has no duty to defend or indemnify Oakes Farms, Inc., Fruit Dynamics, LLC, Oakes Farms Transportation, or Adrian Flores; and direct the clerk to enter a declaratory judgment in favor of Plaintiff Property and Casualty Insurance Inc. in all respects.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
Caseload mix is descriptive, from the dockets he was referred into; because he is a referral magistrate the cases are owned by the assigned district judge, so per-judge case durations are not attributed to him.
Draft for Judge Mizell with the record in hand
Ezel grounds your drafting and research in this profile: what has persuaded Judge Mizell, and what has not, cited to the signed orders.
Opens in Ezel Pro.
- Grounded in Judge Mizell's own signed orders
- Cites every source it relies on, so you can verify it
- Chat, drafting and research in one workspace