Estopped from Escaping Liability
Plaintiff Ahle was injured in a car crash with an employee of D. Chandler, Inc. The employee was insured by Allstate Insurance and the defendant was insured by State Farm. Plaintiff submitted a joint demand to Allstate and State Farm for $400,000.00. State Farm sent Plaintiff correspondence stating that its policy would be excess to the coverage limits of Allstate and Plaintiff needed to exhaust the limits with Allstate first. Allstate tendered its policy limits of $100,000.00 to settle the claim. Plaintiff sent proof of the policy limits to State Farm, who was silent after that. When Allstate tendered the $100,000, Plaintiff signed a release.
Plaintiff eventually filed suit against Defendant. Defendant filed a motion for summary judgment which was granted. On appeal, the court held that there was undoubtedly an issue of material fact as to whether Defendant was estopped from escaping liability based on the signed release. Because State Farm had arguably misled Plaintiff by telling him the State Farm policy was an excess policy, they would not settle with him until after Allstate’s policy limits were exhausted and ignoring him after he sent proof of the exhausted policy limits until he signed the release.
Ahle v. D. Chandler, Inc., 2012 WL 988020, —N.E.2d —- (Ill.App. 5 Dist., 2012), No. 5-10-0346.
