Abram v. United Services Automobile Ass'n

395 Ill. App. 3d 700
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedSeptember 30, 2009
DocketNo. 1—08—1860
StatusPublished

This text of 395 Ill. App. 3d 700 (Abram v. United Services Automobile Ass'n) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Abram v. United Services Automobile Ass'n, 395 Ill. App. 3d 700 (Ill. Ct. App. 2009).

Opinion

JUSTICE QUINN

delivered the opinion of the court:

Plaintiffs, the adult children and administrators of the estates of Albert W. Abram and Cheryl Hanson (the Abrams), appeal from an order of the circuit court of Cook County dismissing their declaratory judgment action against defendant, United States Automobile Association (USAA), pursuant to section 2 — 615 of the Illinois Code of Civil Procedure (735 ILCS 5/2 — 615 (West 2006)) and denying plaintiffs’ cross-motion for summary judgment. The trial court determined that plaintiffs could not “stack” or aggregate coverage under the Abrams’ automobile insurance policy in order to obtain a higher level of coverage after the Abrams were killed in a motor vehicle accident with an uninsured driver, and that the Abrams’ $2 million personal umbrella policy (PUP) did not provide uninsured motorist coverage (UM). As a result, the trial court found that plaintiffs’ recovery was limited to the $500,000-per-accident UM liability limit of the Abrams’ auto policy, which defendant had already paid. For the reasons set forth below, we affirm the order of the circuit court.

I. BACKGROUND

On April 23, 2005, the Abrams, residents of Lake Forest, Illinois, were killed in Louisiana in a motor vehicle accident caused by an uninsured driver. At the time of the accident, the Abrams carried an auto insurance policy (auto policy) issued by USAA on the vehicle they were driving, a 2003 GMC Envoy (GMC). Several months before the accident, the Abrams had renewed that policy for the policy period from January 27, 2005, through July 27, 2005. In addition to providing coverage for the Abrams’ GMC, the auto policy also covered their second car, a 1991 BMW. However, the policy provided different coverage for each vehicle. On the GMC, the policy included liability (bodily injury and property damage), medical payments, uninsured motorist (bodily injury), underinsured motorist (bodily injury), and physical damage (comprehensive loss, collision loss, and rental reimbursement) coverage. The UM coverage for the GMC was capped at $300,000 per person or $500,000 per accident, the same as the liability for bodily injury.

For the BMW, however, the declarations page of the policy shows that it provided only physical damage coverage for comprehensive losses, such as loss by theft, fire, flood or vandalism, and no collision-related coverages at all. Defendant contends that on December 4, 2004, Albert Abram informed USAA that he and his wife would be spending the winter in Arizona and placing the BMW in storage in Illinois until the following May and, therefore, asked that the coverage on the BMW be reduced to include only comprehensive loss coverage. The declarations page of the policy expressly states that the following coverages were not provided on the BMW: liability, medical payments, extended benefits coverage, uninsured motorist, underinsured motorist, collision, rental reimbursement, towing and labor. The declarations page also shows that USAA charged the Abrams a premium for UM coverage on the GMC but did not charge such a premium on the BMW

In addition to their auto policy, the Abrams had a personal umbrella policy (PUP) with USAA for the policy period from July 27, 2004, through July 27, 2005. The PUP provided excess coverage up to a limit of $2 million per occurrence.

Following the accident, USAA paid the plaintiffs $500,000 in UM benefits under the auto policy, which defendant contends is the extent of its liability.

On June 29, 2007, plaintiffs filed a complaint in the circuit court of Cook County against defendant seeking additional payment of UM benefits. Plaintiffs’ complaint contended that although the auto policy did not expressly provide UM coverage for the BMW, the court should imply such coverage in the amount of $300,000 per individual and $500,000 per accident, equal to the bodily injury (BI) and UM limits of liability on the GMC; that the PUP provided excess UM coverage in the amount of $2 million on the GMC and the BMW; and that because the antistacking provisions in the policy do not apply when two people who are “covered persons” under the policy are killed in one accident, plaintiffs should be permitted to stack the UM coverage on the auto policy and the UM coverage on the PUP Therefore, plaintiffs asked the trial court to: (1) reform the underlying policy and the PUP to expressly state that USAA provided UM limits of liability for the BMW in the amount $2.3 million per person/$2.5 million per accident; (2) reform the PUP to expressly state that USAA provided UM limits of liability on the GMC in the amount of $2.3 million per person/$2.5 million per accident; (3) reform the underlying policy, the PUT? and the rejection/selection form of the policy to expressly state that any purported antistacking provisions in the policy have no application to situations where two “covered persons” are killed in an occurrence; and (4) award judgment in plaintiffs’ favor in the amount of $5 million, plus costs and expenses.

Defendant filed a motion to dismiss pursuant to section 2 — 615 of the Illinois Code of Civil Procedure (735 ILCS 5/2 — 615 (West 2006)) and plaintiffs filed a cross-motion for summary judgment. Following a hearing, the trial court granted defendant’s section 2 — 615 motion to dismiss with prejudice and denied plaintiffs’ cross-motion for summary judgment. In so doing, the court found that the plaintiffs could not recover under the PUP because (1) the PUP did not provide uninsured motorist coverage; (2) the PUP only applies to amounts that the insured becomes legally obligated to pay; and (3) the PUP does not apply to injury to any insured. The court further found that plaintiffs’ recovery for this occurrence is limited to $500,000 pursuant to several antistacking provisions of the auto policy, which the court found were “not ambiguous or inconsistent in regard to these matters.” Plaintiffs now appeal.

II. ANALYSIS

A. Standard of Review

The granting of a motion to dismiss pursuant to section 2 — 615 of the Illinois Code of Civil Procedure (735 ILCS 5/2 — 615 (West 2006)) is reviewed under the de novo standard of review. Compton v. Country Mutual Insurance Co., 382 Ill. App. 3d 323, 325 (2008). Summary judgment rulings are also subject to de novo review. Outboard Marine Corp. v. Liberty Mutual Insurance Co., 154 Ill. 2d 90, 102 (1992).

An insurance policy is a contract, and the general rules of contract construction apply. Hobbs v. Hartford Insurance Co. of the Midwest, 214 Ill. 2d 11, 17 (2005). “[O]ur primary objective is to ascertain and give effect to the intention of the parties, as expressed in the policy language.” Hobbs, 214 Ill. 2d at 17. Unambiguous language will be applied as written unless it violates public policy. Hobbs, 214 Ill. 2d at 17. Policy terms that limit an insurer’s liability will be liberally construed in favor of coverage, but only if the policy is ambiguous. Ambiguity exists in an insurance contract if the language is subject to more than one reasonable interpretation, but we will not strain to find an ambiguity where none exists. Hobbs, 214 Ill. 2d at 17. If two or more clauses within the policy conflict or are inconsistent, then the clause affording greater coverage will govern. Yates v.

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Bluebook (online)
395 Ill. App. 3d 700, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/abram-v-united-services-automobile-assn-illappct-2009.