Umbrella Policy Expressly Provides Coverage for “Personal Liability” and Unambiguously Excludes Excess Coverage for Insureds’ First-Party Injuries
In Huizenga v. Auto-Owners Insurance, the insureds, David and Brenda Huizenga, were involved in an automobile accident with an uninsured driver. Their injuries exceeded $500,000 in damages. At the time of the accident, the insureds owned an underlying automobile insurance policy with coverage for bodily injury, property damage, uninsured and underinsured motorist, and medical payments. In addition, at the time of the accident, the insureds owned an umbrella policy that provided $1 million in excess coverage for the insureds for personal liability. Personal liability was defined within the policy as “the ultimate net loss in excess of the retained limit which the insured becomes legally obligated to pay as damages because of personal injury or property damage.”
The insureds claimed that because the provision at issue was an endorsement, its language may modify the grant of coverage to include excess uninsured motorist claims. However, the court determined that the endorsement was not intended to modify the grant of coverage, but intended to modify the exclusion section of the policy to add the exclusion for the insureds’ first-party personal injuries.
The court reviewed whether the endorsement in the insureds’ umbrella policy with Auto-Owners Insurance provided excessive uninsured motorist coverage for their personal injuries.
Under this ruling, interpreting the terms of the umbrella policy as excluding first-party coverage is consistent with Illinois law when an umbrella policy expressly provided coverage for “Personal Liability” and unambiguously excluded excess coverage for the insureds’ first-party injuries.
Huizenga v. Auto-Owners Ins., 2014 IL App (3d) 120937.
