Aguilar Alvarado v. Liberty Surplus Insurance Corporation

District Court, N.D. Illinois·Decided August 6, 2024·No. 1:24-cv-02054·Unknown

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS EASTERN DIVISION

JENIFFER AGUILAR ALVARADO, ) ) Plaintiff, ) ) No. 24 C 2054 v. ) ) Judge Sara L. Ellis LIBERTY SURPLUS INSURANCE CORP., ) ) Defendant. )

OPINION AND ORDER After Defendant Liberty Surplus Insurance Corporation (“Liberty Surplus”) denied Plaintiff Jeniffer Aguilar Alvarado’s demand for underinsured motorist coverage because the governing policy did not include such coverage, Aguilar Alvarado brought this action in the Circuit Court of Lake County. Aguilar Alvarado seeks a declaratory judgment that the insurance policy should include underinsured motorist coverage equal to the policy’s liability limits. Liberty Surplus removed the action to this Court and has moved to dismiss Aguilar Alvarado’s claim pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6). Because Illinois law did not require Liberty Surplus to provide underinsured motorist coverage, the Court grants Liberty Surplus’ motion to dismiss. The Court dismisses Counts I, II, and IV of Aguilar Alvarado’s amended complaint with prejudice and dismisses Count III without prejudice. BACKGROUND1 I. Turo’s Insurance Policy with Liberty Surplus Turo, Inc. (“Turo”) is a peer-to-peer car sharing company that facilitates customers’ leasing of cars directly from car owners for a short rental period. Since 2016, Turo has

1 The Court takes the facts in the background section from Aguilar Alvarado’s amended complaint and presumes them to be true for the purpose of resolving Liberty Surplus’ motion to dismiss. See Phillips v. maintained a car insurance policy with Liberty Surplus. When it first entered into its policy with Liberty Surplus in 2016, Turo received an Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist Bodily Injury Coverage and Limit Options Illinois Form (the “2016 Consent Form”). Turo elected $50,000 of the Combined Single Limit (“CSL”) of uninsured motorist (“UM”) coverage for bodily injury

and declined to offer UM coverage for property damage. The $50,000 CSL did not include coverage for underinsured motorists (“UIM”). Turo renewed its policy with Liberty Surplus on December 19, 2019 (the “Policy”). The Policy establishes a minimum CSL financial responsibility requirement of $70,000 for “travelers” and a $1,000,000 limit for “employees” in Illinois. Doc. 8 at 32. The Policy defines “traveler” as “the individual that is recorded in the Turo Reservation System as the responsible driver for the ‘rental period,’ but does not include any driver using an ‘owner-provided insurance vehicle.’” Doc. 19-1 at 422. By contrast an employee “includes a ‘leased worker’” who is defined as “a person leased to you by a labor leasing firm under an agreement between you and the labor leasing firm to perform duties related to the conduct of your business.” Id. at 458.

The Policy also contains an Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist Insurance Schedule (the “Schedule”), which indicates that the Policy provides $50,000 in UM bodily injury coverage per accident. It does not list any UIM coverage. The Illinois Uninsured Motorist Coverage endorsement (the “Endorsement”) modifies the Schedule and clarifies that the UM limit of $50,000 of bodily injury coverage per accident will be applied “to first provide the separate limits required by the Illinois Safety Responsibility Law as follows: $25,000 for ‘bodily injury’

Prudential Ins. Co. of Am., 714 F.3d 1017, 1019–20 (7th Cir. 2013). Although the Court normally cannot consider extrinsic evidence without converting a motion to dismiss into one for summary judgment, Jackson v. Curry, 888 F.3d 259, 263 (7th Cir. 2018), the Court may consider “documents that are central to the complaint and are referred to in it” in ruling on a motion to dismiss, Williamson v. Curran, 714 F.3d 432, 436 (7th Cir. 2013). to any one person caused by any one ‘accident’; and $50,000 for ‘bodily injury’ to two or more persons caused by any one ‘accident.’” Id. at 228. The Endorsement further states that it “will not change our total limit of liability.” Id. II. Aguilar Alvarado’s Accident and Subsequent Litigation

On December 22, 2019, Aguilar Alvarado rented a car through Turo, acquiring insurance through Turo’s Policy with Liberty Surplus. Later that day, Aguilar Alvarado got into a minor car accident with Maria Velasco. When Aguilar Alvarado stepped out of her car to discuss the accident with Velasco, a third driver, Ana Flores, drunkenly drove into Velasco’s car. The impact from Flores hitting Velasco’s car caused Aguilar Alvarado to be thrown in the air and sustain serious injuries. Flores’ insurance paid its full limit of $25,000 to Aguilar Alvarado. Aguilar Alvarado subsequently made a demand for UIM arbitration with Liberty Surplus. Liberty Surplus responded that the Policy provided $0 in UIM coverage because Turo had rejected that coverage. Aguilar Alvarado and Liberty Surplus then engaged in arbitration for the next several months, which ultimately failed.

On November 9, 2023, Aguilar Alvarado sued Liberty Surplus in the Circuit Court of Lake County seeking a declaration that the Policy violates Illinois law by not providing UIM coverage and requesting reformation of the Policy to comply with Illinois law (Counts I and IV). She also seeks a declaration that the Policy fails to comply with the 2016 Consent Form (Count II) and acknowledgment that the Policy contained material changes from the 2016 Consent Form (Count III). Liberty Surplus removed the action to this Court and now moves to dismiss Aguilar Alvarado’s complaint. LEGAL STANDARD A motion to dismiss under Rule 12(b)(6) challenges the sufficiency of the complaint, not its merits. Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6); Gibson v. City of Chicago, 910 F.2d 1510, 1520 (7th Cir. 1990). In considering a Rule 12(b)(6) motion, the Court accepts as true all well-pleaded facts in

the plaintiff’s complaint and draws all reasonable inferences from those facts in the plaintiff’s favor. Kubiak v. City of Chicago, 810 F.3d 476, 480–81 (7th Cir. 2016). To survive a Rule 12(b)(6) motion, the complaint must assert a facially plausible claim and provide fair notice to the defendant of the claim’s basis. Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678 (2009); Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 555 (2007); Adams v. City of Indianapolis, 742 F.3d 720, 728–29 (7th Cir. 2014). A claim is facially plausible “when the plaintiff pleads factual content that allows the court to draw the reasonable inference that the defendant is liable for the misconduct alleged.” Iqbal, 556 U.S. at 678. ANALYSIS I. The Policy’s Compliance with the Illinois Vehicle Code (Counts I and IV)

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Aguilar Alvarado v. Liberty Surplus Insurance Corporation, (N.D. Ill. 2024).

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