CXS Transportation, Inc. v. Lexington Insurance

187 F.R.D. 555, 1999 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15988, 1999 WL 461092
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Illinois
DecidedMarch 16, 1999
DocketNo. 98 C 3224
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 187 F.R.D. 555 (CXS Transportation, Inc. v. Lexington Insurance) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
CXS Transportation, Inc. v. Lexington Insurance, 187 F.R.D. 555, 1999 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15988, 1999 WL 461092 (N.D. Ill. 1999).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

LINDBERG, District Judge.

Plaintiff, CSX Transportation, Inc. (“CSXT”), has brought this action against Lexington Insurance Co., Home Insurance Co., International Surplus Lines Insurance Co.1 and National Union Fire Insurance Co. of Pittsburgh, PA, alleging that defendants wrongfully denied benefits under a single, all-risk insurance policy (“the policy”). Plaintiff also brought a claim for punitive damages and claims under Florida statutory law for bad faith denial of coverage and unfair claim settlement practices.

Defendants Lexington Insurance Co. and Home Insurance Co. currently have two pending motions. The first is a motion to dismiss in which defendants claim that Illinois law applies to this action and that plaintiffs claims for bad faith denial of coverage, unfair claim settlement practices, and punitive damages are not recognizable under Illinois law. The second motion is a motion to compel plaintiff to produce timesheets and correspondence and to have its former attorneys submit to depositions concerning the work they performed on the underlying action for which plaintiff is claiming defendants wrongfully denied coverage. Defendants, again citing Illinois law, claim that no attorney-client privilege exists when an insured seeks coverage for reasonable attorneys fees incurred in an underlying action. Waste Management v. International Surplus, 144 Ill.2d 178, 161 Ill.Dec. 774, 579 N.E.2d 322 (1991). Plaintiff responds that it is Florida law that governs this action. Consequently, it claims, defendants’ motions must be denied because under Florida law, the attorney-client privilege protects the information defendants seek to discover and because Florida law clearly recognizes its claims for punitive damages, bad faith denial of coverage and unfair claims settlement practices.2 Kujawa v. Manhattan National Life Insurance Co., 541 So.2d 1168 (Fla.1989).

There is no choice-of-law provision in the policy itself. The parties acknowledge that a conflict exists on the relevant issues between Illinois and Florida law and so the court must choose between them. As this action was filed in Illinois, its choice-of-law rules apply. Klaxon Co. v. Stentor Electric Manufacturing Co., 313 U.S. 487, 61 S.Ct. 1020, 85 L.Ed. 1477 (1941). In Illinois, choice of law as to insurance policies is generally “governed by the location of the subject matter, the place of delivery of the contract, the domicile of the insured or of the insurer, the place of the last act to give rise to the valid contract, the place of performance, or other place bearing a rational relationship to the general contract.” LaphamHickey Steel Corp. v. Protection Mutual Insurance Co., 166 Ill.2d 520, 211 Ill.Dec. 459, 462, 655 N.E.2d 842, 845 (1995) (quoting Hofeld v. Nationwide Life Insurance Co., 59 Ill.2d 522, 322 N.E.2d 454 (1975)). “The location of the insured risk will be given greater weight than any other single contact in determining the state of the applicable law provided that the risk can be located, at least principally, in a single state.” Massachusetts Bay Ins. Co. v. Vic Koenig Leasing, Inc., 136 [558]*558F.3d 1116, 1122 (7th Cir.1998) (citing Society of Mount Carmel v. National Ben Franklin Ins. Co. of Ill., 268 Ill.App.3d 655, 205 Ill.Dec. 673, 679, 643 N.E.2d 1280, 1286 (1994)).

Defendant argues that the location of the insured risk in this instance is in Illinois and that under Illinois’s significant contacts test, this factor is the most important in determining which state’s law applies. American Builders & Contractors Supply Co. v. Home Insurance Co., 1997 WL 43017 (N.D.Ill.). They assert that Illinois has the greatest interest in the insured risk in this case — the steel railroad bridge spanning the Calumet River. United States Gypsum Co. v. Admiral Insurance Co., 268 Ill.App.3d 598, 205 Ill.Dec. 619, 643, 643 N.E.2d 1226, 1250 (1994). In Lapham-Hickey, though, the Illinois Supreme Court applied Illinois law— where the contract was negotiated and delivered' — even though the underlying action occurred in Minnesota and the insured risk at issue was located in Minnesota. Id. at 526, 211 Ill.Dec. at 462, 655 N.E.2d at 845 The policy was delivered in Illinois, the plaintiff was an Illinois corporation and the insurer was licensed to do business in Illinois. Id. In concluding that Illinois had the most significant relationship with the case, the court relied on the place of the policy’s delivery rather than the place of the insured risk because the policy covered property located in six different states. It based the choice of Illinois law on the need “to obtain a consistent interpretation of the policy.” Id. at 527, 211 Ill.Dec. at 462, 655 N.E.2d at 845. See also Maremont Corp. v. Cheshire, 288 Ill. App.3d 721, 224 Ill.Dec. 233, 236, 681 N.E.2d 548, 551 (1997).

The Seventh Circuit has indicated that it finds the Illinois Supreme Court’s approach in Lapham-Hickey unclear. Lee v. Interstate Fire & Casualty Co., 86 F.3d 101, 103 (7th Cir.1996). It noted that the Illinois Supreme Court’s “formulation does not choose between the old, formal approach and the modern, ‘contract’ approach; instead it includes elements of both, without offering any guidance for what happens when a contract of insurance is delivered in one state but covers a risk in another.” Id. However, it interpreted Lapham-Hickey as articulating a choice-of-law policy that looks to consistent interpretation of an insurance policy rather than one that looks only to the place of the policy’s negotiation and delivery. Id. In Lee, the Seventh Circuit held that the state where the insured risk was located had more significant contacts with the policy than the state where the policy was delivered. Id. But it did so because it held that Illinois would not apply “multiple bodies of law to a single disputed term.” Id. Choosing the state where the insured risk was located achieved that end. Id.

The facts in this case are quite similar to those in Lapham-Hickey. CSXT is a Virginia corporation with its principle place of business in Florida. Home Insurance is a New Hampshire corporation with its principle place of business in New York. Lexington is a Delaware corporation with its principle place of business in Boston. All defendants are licensed to do business in Florida. The policies at issue cover CSXT property throughout the country, including in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Maryland, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and Illinois. All of CSXT’s activity regarding the negotiation and purchase of its insurance policies occurred in Florida.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
187 F.R.D. 555, 1999 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15988, 1999 WL 461092, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cxs-transportation-inc-v-lexington-insurance-ilnd-1999.