Trial Awards Distribution Method
One person was injured and five others were killed in an auto accident. All six of them, or their adequate representatives, sued the driver who caused the car wreck. The driver had an automobile policy which would pay up to $100,000 per occurrence, which was tendered. The passenger who died had his own exclusive source of under insured-motorists coverage, which tendered $1.65 million dollars to him after settlement. One of the passengers had under-insured motorist’s coverage, which after litigation it was determined aggregated to $900,000 in the host vehicle’s common pool. The insurer offset the $100,000 and tendered $800,000 to the court. The court used the ratio method in distributing the $900,000 between the five plaintiffs.
The appellants filed an appeal challenging the method of distribution, arguing that the ratio method was improperly applied. The appellants argued and the court agreed that the court first must consider the host vehicle occupants with separate sources of under insured-motorists coverage exclusive to them. Those persons must access their own sources of under insured-motorists coverage before participating in the host vehicle’s common pool of under insured-motorists coverage. The trial court must give credit for the under insured-motorists coverage available exclusively to one occupant and the common pool coverage should be used initially to satisfy the claims of occupants with no outside source of under insured-motorists coverage.
The court also found that the damage awards decided by the trial court during the bench trial to determine the distribution of the tortfeasor’s bodily injury liability should control the distribution of the under insured-motorists policy coverage.
Columbia Mutual Ins. Co. v. Herrin, 965 N.E.2d 422 (Ill.App. 5 Dist., 2012), No. 5-10-0037
