Any Person Required to be Licensed to Sell, Solicit, or Negotiate Insurance has Duty to Exercise Ordinary Care in Procuring Insurance
In Skaperdas v Country Casualty Ins., Steven A Skaperdas (“Skaperdas”) brought a cause of action against an insurance agent and Country Casualty Insurance (“Country Casualty”). He sought damages for the agent’s negligence in procuring automobile insurance that did not name his girlfriend, Valerie Day (“Day”), or her son, Jonathan Jackson (“Jackson”), as insureds and a declaration of coverage of incident for injuries sustained to his girlfriend’s son. In early 2008, Skaperdas’ girlfriend had an accident while driving one of Skaperdas’ vehicle. Country Casualty covered the loss, but required Skaperdas to add his girlfriend to the insurance. Skaperdas had a conversation with Tom Lessaris (“Lessaris”), an insurance agent representing Country Casualty, about adding his girlfriend and her son to the auto insurance policy. Effective February 14, 2009, Skaperdas purchased a Country Casualty auto insurance policy through Lessaris. The declarations page (“deck” page) for that policy listed only Skaperdas as a named insured. The “deck” page identified the driver, however, as a “FEMALE, 30-64.” In July 2009, Jackson was seriously injured when he was struck by a vehicle while he was on his bicycle. Day and Jackson sued the driver’s insurance company and reached a settlement for the insured’s policy limits of $25,000, an amount that was insufficient to fully compensate them for their losses. Shortly thereafter, plaintiffs made a claim for underinsured motorist benefits under the February 14, 2009, policy Skaperdas purchased from Country Casualty through Lessaris. Country Casualty denied the claim on the grounds that neither Day nor Jackson was listed as a named insured on that policy.
The court addressed the question of whether Section 2-2201 of the Insurance Act eliminated the duty of care between the insurance agent and broker. The court determined that a plain reading of Section 2-2201 of the Act, combined with Section 500-10 of the Illinois Insurance Code, is that any person required to be licensed to sell, solicit, or negotiate insurance has a duty to exercise ordinary care in procuring insurance. The court continued to find no distinction in either of these sections between an insurance agent or an insurance broker, a position which is generally accepted.
The court held that the agent owed a duty of care to the insured.
Skaperdas v Country Casualty Ins., 2013 WL 5525714 (Ill.App. 4 Dist. 2013). (This order was filed under Supreme Court Rule 23 and may not be cited as precedent by any party except in the limited circumstances allowed under Rule 23(e)(1).).
