Plaintiff in Personal Injury Suit can only Recover under Automobile Insurance Policy Covering Automobile in Accident
Plaintiff sued an individual for personal injuries resulting from a car crash. Plaintiff settled with the insurer for $100,000, the limit per person on the automobile insurance policy covering the truck involved in the accident. After a jury awarded him damages of $275,733.00, Plaintiff filed suit against the insurer seeking additional sums from a second automobile insurance policy that covered the individual’s second car. The first issue presented was whether the “two or more cars insured” provision applied.
The court held that an insurance policy attaches to a specific car and that the “two or more cars insured” provision excluded Plaintiff from recovering under both policies. The next issue was whether the insurer waived the exclusion in the second policy that barred coverage from bodily injury “arising out of the use of any vehicle, other than your insured car, which is owned or furnished or available for regular use by you or any resident of your household.”
The court held that the second policy’s exclusion applied and that since the plaintiff provided no authority for the contention that the insurer waived its right to use the exclusion, the insurer did not waive the assertion. Plaintiff’s last contention was that the second policy extended coverage to the car in the accident by covering injuries sustained “via use of private passenger cars and utility cars.”
The court held that the provision did not expand coverage, that each policy applied to each respective vehicle, and that the plaintiff cannot recover under the second policy when the vehicle involved in the wreck was covered under the first policy.
West v. American Standard Ins. Co. of Wisconsin, 2011 IL App (1st) 101274, 952 N.E.2d 1274 (Ill.App. 1 Dist., 2011).
