Court Opinion

ID: 9742758
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 21:19:53.61595+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:36.450970
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE KARNS, dissenting: Under the clear and unambiguous wording of paragraph 5 of the conditional receipt, set out in the majority opinion, no insurance was in effect until a policy was issued, the conditional receipt determining the effective date of the policy. Numerous Illinois cases hold that an application for insurance is an offer and no insurance is effective until acceptance, usually in the form of issuance of the policy. (See, e.g., Fields v. Franklin Life Insurance Co. (1983), 115 Ill. App. 3d 954, 451 N.E.2d 930; Reynolds v. Guarantee Reserve Life Insurance Co. (1976), 44 Ill. App. 3d 764, 358 N.E.2d 940; Wallace v. Prudential Insurance Co. (1973), 12 Ill. App. 3d 623, 299 N.E.2d 344.) The majority has resorted to a strained construction of the language of the receipt and rewritten the agreement of the parties.