Judge Denise Cote
Cenlar FSB services the mortgage on Curtis’s second home in Florida. Curtis repeatedly renewed a homeowners property insurance policy that excluded coverage for wind damage. After he refused to purchase wind damage coverage Cenlar bought a policy including such coverage—issued by American Security Ins. Co., a subsidiary of Assurant Inc. (the Assurant Defendants)—on his behalf, billing its $7,512 premium to his escrow account. Curtis’s lawsuit—removed from state court—alleged that an agreement between Cenlar and the Assurant Defendants inflated the subject policy’s price—by commissions and other remuneration paid to Cenlar—contrary to the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act. District court granted the Assurant Defendants dismissal under the Filed Rate Doctrine and because the Florida statute on which Curtis relied does not apply to insurance companies in Florida. Second Circuit has held that the rationales underlying the filed rate doctrine apply equally strongly to regulation by state agencies. Because the Assurant Defendants’ rates are subject to regulation by the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation, Curtis’s claims that they were inflated was not cognizable in the Southern District of New York.