Apex Roofing and Restoration, LLC a/a/o Nancy Forde v. Security First Insurance Company
In an AOB roof-repair breach of contract suit, the county court overruled the contractor's trade-secret objections to discovery of subcontractor agreements, invoices, and payment proofs without holding an in camera inspection or evidentiary hearing and without specific findings. The Fifth DCA granted certiorari and quashed the order, adopting the three-step trade-secret discovery framework and holding that a factual dispute over whether single-transaction pricing materials could be extrapolated to reveal commercial methods requires in camera review.
Key facts
- Apex Roofing and Restoration, LLC, assigned the rights to an insurance claim from Nancy Forde, sued Security First Insurance Company for breach of contract in a roof-repair assignment-of-benefits dispute.
- The county court ordered production of subcontractor agreements, invoices, and payment proofs despite Apex's assertion that these materials contained trade secrets, without conducting an in camera inspection or evidentiary hearing and without making specific findings on the trade-secret claim.
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Why it matters
The Fifth DCA aligns with the Second, Third, and Fourth DCAs on the mandatory three-step trade-secret discovery procedure and expressly adopts Lewis Tree's reasoning that even single-transaction pricing documents may… — full analysis with a trial
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