Court Opinion

ID: 9444541
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 21:04:43.586909+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:29:54.867677
License: Public Domain

DUFFY, Chief Judge
(dissenting in part).
I agree that the plaintiff should recover upon the policy. However, I disapprove the allowance of $500.00 attorney’s fees.
The Illinois statute authorizes the recovery of attorney’s fees as part of the taxable costs, where an insurance company’s refusal to pay the loss is “vexatious and without reasonable cause.” This action was not a one-sided lawsuit. An insurance company should not be compelled to defend on its policy at the peril of being assessed attorney’s fees as costs, if it should lose. I think this was a case where the insurance company was entitled to its day in Court, and that in so doing, it did not act in a vexatious manner without reasonable cause.