Test-Driver of Car is “Customer” of Auto Dealership
A car dealership had an umbrella policy and an excess policy to protect it from liability in excess of its primary limits. Both policies stated that the term “insured” did not include the dealership’s “customers.” A test-driver was driving one of the dealership’s cars when it collided with another vehicle. The salesman in the car with the test-driver was killed, and his estate filed suit against the test-driver. Declaratory actions were sought to declare the coverage available to the test-driver under both his insurance policies and the dealership’s insurance policies. The main issue was the meaning of “customer” and whether a test-driver fell into that definition.
The court used past Illinois and other states’ cases to demonstrate multiple times when a test-driver was referred to as a “customer.” The court then cited other states’ decisions in which a test-driver was deemed to be a “customer” of an auto-dealership, whether or not he purchased the car. The court declared that the term “customer” was not subject to more than one reasonable interpretation in relation to auto-dealerships’ insurance policies. The court held that the plain and ordinary meaning of the term “customer,” as used in an insurance policy issued to an automobile dealership, reasonably includes one who test-drives an automobile before purchase.
Czapski v. Maher, 2011 WL 2342741, —N.E.2d —- (Ill.App. 1 Dist., 2011).
