[ DO NOT PUBLISH] 

## In the 

# United States Court of Appeals For the Eleventh Circuit

____________________ No. 22

- 13514
Non

- Argument Calendar

____________________
LONNIE LOVE,
Plaintiff

- Appellant,

versus STATE FARM FLORIDA INSURANCE COMPANY,

Defendant

- Appellee.

____________________ Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia D.C. Docket No. 1:21

- cv

- 00786

- ELR

____________________ USCA11 Case: 22-13514 Document: 19-1 Date Filed: 02/16/2023 Page: 1 of 92 Opinion of the Court 22

- 13514

Before J ORDAN , N EWSOM , and B RANCH , Circuit Judges.
PER CURIAM: Lonnie Love claims that robbers stole $1 3 7 ,000 of jewelry from his car , which they took during a gunfight in a strip

- club parking lot. Love filed a claim with his insurance carrier, State Farm. In a series of follow

- up letters, State Farm asked for numerous documents and a n examination under oath to help it assess the claim. Love, thinking many of the requests burdensome and irrelevant
, sat for the examination but only supplied some of the documents and never completed the follow

- up paperwork

. When State Farm

— which never received the requested documents

— failed to promptly pay the claim, Love sued for breach of

contract

. State Farm sought summary judgment , arguing that Love’s premature suit was itself a breach of the policy. It points to several provisions in the insurance contract to which Love agreed : 8. Examination Under Oath. You agree: a. to be examined under oath and subscribe to the same as often as we reasonably require;

. . . d. to produce such records as we may need to verify the claim and its amount, and to permit copies of such records to be made if needed. USCA11 Case: 22-13514 Document: 19-1 Date Filed: 02/16/2023 Page: 2 of 922

- 13514 Opinion of the Court 3
9. Suit Against Us. No action will be brought unless:a. there has been compliance with the policy provisions

Doc. 1

- 1 at 27. In State Farm’s view, L ove’s failure to provide all the requested documents violated Condition 8 and his filing of the suit while violating Condition 8 was itself a violation of Condition 9. The district court agreed and granted summary judgment to State Farm. On appeal, Love presents two arguments

. 1 First, Love argues that summary judgment is inappropriate because there is a

1 Love’s opening brief’s “Statement of the Issues” includes a n additional issue:“Whether the district court erred in granting summary judgment on Appellant’s other claims while discovery remained pending and Appellant had notyet had an opportunity to establish a record regarding the claims under investigation through discove ry.” O ther than a conclusory statement in the fact section that “the denial of Appellant’s other claims were premature,” Love advances no arguments to support this claim. Accordingly, he has forfeited it

. See Sapuppo v. Allstate Floridian Ins. Co. , 739 F.3d 678, 681 (11th Cir. 2014) (“ We have long held that an appellant abandons a claim when he either makesonly passing references to it or raises it in a perfunctory manner without supporting arguments and authority. ”). Love also makes a cursory argument that State Farm’s failure to agree to a dismissal waive d the breach of Condition 9. But because Love admits that the facts are not in the record and does not cite any legal authorities, he has likewise forfeited that argument. See id. at 682 (“ The brief makes no argument and cites no authorities to support those conclusory assertions. ”); Fed. R. App. P. 28(a)(8) (“ The appellant ’ s brief must contain . . . (8) the argument, whichmust contain: (A) appellant's contentions and the reasons for them, with citations to the authorities and parts of the record on which the appellant relies.”). USCA11 Case: 22-13514 Document: 19-1 Date Filed: 02/16/2023 Page: 3 of 94 Opinion of the Court 22

- 13514 genuine dispute about whether he violated Condition 8. Second, Love disputes the remedy. He claims that even if he sued too

soon

— befor e he complied with Condition 8

— the remedy should be dismissal of his suit to allow him to satisfy the conditions rather than granting judgment on the merits of his contract claim.
After careful review, we agree with the district court and affirm summary judgment for State Farm.
I
Love claims that there is a genuine dispute about whether h e breached the contract. 2 In the alternative, he argues that State Farm’s own bad faith precludes summary judgment even if he breached.
A Love provided a police report, app r aisals and photos related to some of the jewelry, and a sworn statement, and he sat for a n examination under oath

. But , as the district court explained
, Love “does not appear to deny that he has failed to produce the majority of the documents” that State Farm requested: numerous financial records related to the purchase of the jewelry, the police inventory

2 Under Georgia law, a breach of contract claim requires showing “(1) breach and the (2) resultant damages (3) to the party who has the right to complain about the contract being broken.” McAlister v. Clifton
, 873 S.E.2d 178, 183 ( Ga. 2022). USCA11 Case: 22-13514 Document: 19-1 Date Filed: 02/16/2023 Page: 4 of 922

- 13514 Opinion of the Court 5 of the stolen car, information about a recent flight, and a signed errata sheet for his examination under oath. Doc. 47 at 8

– 9. On appea l, Love argues that whether the records he failed to provide were “ need [ed] to verify the claim and its amount ”

— as that phrase is used in Condition 8

— is a jury question. He dispute s the applicable Georgia law standard for measuring compliance.

E choing the district court’s reasoning , State Farm contends that Halcome v. Cincinnati Ins urance Co. , 334 S.E.2d 155, 157 (Ga. 1985), does two important things: It (1) makes the focus whether any material information wasn’t provided and (2) hold s that this issue can be decided as a matter of law. We agree. For insurance contracts like the one here, w e’ve already interpreted Halcome to require “an insured to provide any ‘material information’ to the insurer that the insurer is entitled to receive under the insurance policy” and said that “absent an excusable failure to do so” that failure would “constitute[] a breach of the insurance contract.” Hines v. State Farm Fire & Cas. Co. , 815 F.2d 64 8, 651 (11th Cir. 1987). And at least in appropriate circumstances, this can be decided by a court as a matter of law. Indeed, t he Halcome c ourt itself decide d that the income records of the couple suspected of multiple insurance frauds in that case were material to their claim. 334 S.E.2d at 157.
The withheld documents here are , if anything, more material than the records in Halcome
, which merely bore on the potential motive for the fraud

. Here, f or example, t he financial documentation regarding Love’s purchase of a “ Band Ring ” was necessary to establish that he ever owned an item that he claimed was USCA11 Case: 22-13514 Document: 19-1 Date Filed: 02/16/2023 Page: 5 of 96 Opinion of the Court 22

- 13514 stolen. This is important because State Farm had a reasonable basis to question whether he did. Love could not re call when or from whom he had purchased it. And the appraisal he provided didn’t include his name. A nd a s the district court held, other material requests went to determining the value of the jewelry and whether Love possessed it on the night it was stol en. Love’s failure to provide these records would not be fatal to his claim if he had a reasonable excuse. In Hines , we held that an insured’s inability to provide documents because they had been destroyed by a fire was reasonable and that there was a jur y question about whether the documents had been destroyed . 815 F.2d at 652. But here, Love does not claim that the documents are unavailable. And he offers no excuse other than that he doesn’t think that they are material. 3
Instead
, Love points to Diam onds & Denims, Inc. v. First of G

eorgia Ins urance Co. , 417 S.E.2d 440 (Ga. App. 1992) , whose language , he says, suggests that partial failures to provide information always give rise to a jury question regarding compliance

. Id. at 4 41

– 4 2 . But Diamonds

— a lower court case

— explicitly distinguished Halcom e

— the controlling Georgia Supreme Court decision

— on two bases, saying that Halcome di dn’t apply (1) when

3 In his reply brief, Love advances

— for the first time

— the argument that he “provided [State Farm] with the records that he was able to locate.” We do not, however, consider arguments raised for the first time in a reply brief. United States v. Martinez
, 83 F.3d 371, 377 n.6 (11th Cir.1996)

. USCA11 Case: 22-13514 Document: 19-1 Date Filed: 02/16/2023 Page: 6 of 922

- 13514 Opinion of the Court 7 there was no suspicion of fraud and (2) when the records had been destroyed. Id. at 442. Unfortunately for Love, t his case is like Halcome

— not Diamonds

— on both scores

. There is no genuine dispute about whether Love failed to provide m aterial requests to State Farm.
B Love also relies on a second statement in Diamonds that “the insurer ’ s failure to act with diligence and good faith in securing the necessary information also will preclude the grant of summary judgment to the insurer on the issue of the insured ’ s compliance with policy prerequisites.” 417 S.E.2d at 442 (citing Saft Am

. , Inc. v. Ins. Co. of N.A. , 271 S.E.2d 641 ( Ga. App. 1980); St. Paul Fire & Marine Ins. Co. v. Gordon , 158 S.E.2d 278 ( Ga. App. 1967) ). But the insurer’s dilatory conduct must relate to the specific “necessary information” that constituted the breach. For example, the Saft

c ourt refused to penalize the insured for failing to complete an examination under oath when the insurer failed to fulfill i ts steps necessary to scheduling the examination. 271 S.E.2d at 64 2

. In Diamonds
, t he insured notified the insurer that the requested records were destroyed in a fire. 417 S.E.2d at 442. The insure r then merely “ reiterate [d] in general language the pol icy requirement for production of ‘ books and records ’” but never “ followed up these generalized statements with specific requests, sought releases from [the insured] in order to obtain records from other sources, or otherwise pursued the matter further. ” Id. So

— using Halcome ’s phrasing

— in Saft and Diamonds , the insurer’s actions contributed USCA11 Case: 22-13514 Document: 19-1 Date Filed: 02/16/2023 Page: 7 of 98 Opinion of the Court 22

- 13514 to the “excusable failure” of the insured to produce the specific items alleged to constitute the breach. See 334 S.E.2d at 157.
Love ’s claim is different. He isn’t saying that State Farm somehow contributed to his failure to provide the requested information. Instead, Love objects that State Farm didn’t continue processing his claim while it waited for his responses. But he points us to no legal authority which wo uld require that or otherwise suggest how it would excuse his breach.

* * *The district court properly determined that there is no genuine dispute about (1) whether Love failed to provide material information and (2) whether Love’s failure was un excused . The district court, therefore, properly granted summary judgment to State Farm.
II
Love also argues that a dismissal without prejudice wouldbe the appropriate remedy because even if he breached the contract, it isn’t void. But he cites no authority ex plaining why a party who satisfies Rule 56’s requirements for obtaining summary judgment isn’t entitled to a judgment

. What Love actually seems to seek is clarity about his prospective rights. In essence , h e seems to ask us to say that the contract rema ins in effect and that , if he cures the conditions, he can refile his suit . But that question is one about the preclusive effect of the judgment, not whether the judgment itself is appropriate. USCA11 Case: 22-13514 Document: 19-1 Date Filed: 02/16/2023 Page: 8 of 922

- 13514 Opinion of the Court 9

And whether the judgment in this case has preclusive effect is not a question presented in this case ; it is a question to be answered in any ensuing suit. Were we to answer it here, we would, in essence, be issuing an advisory opinion. E.g. , Personalized User Model, LLP v. Google Inc. , 797 F.3d 1341, 1350 (Fed. Cir. 2015)

. Accordingly,

w e lack the authority to give Love th e clarity he seeks

. See Church of Scientology of Cal

. v. United States , 506 U.S. 9, 12 (1992).
III For the foregoing reasons, we affirm

. AFFIRMED. USCA11 Case: 22-13514 Document: 19-1 Date Filed: 02/16/2023 Page: 9 of 9