Court Opinion

ID: 9745679
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 23:17:22.57654+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:25:04.047323
License: Public Domain

SUPPLEMENTAL OPINION UPON DENIAL OF PETITION FOR REHEARING Mr. JUSTICE JONES delivered the amendment to opinion of the court: Following the filing of the opinion in this case defendant State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company filed a Petition for Rehearing in which it is contended that the court misconstrued ch. 73, sec. 755(a), Ill. Rev. Stat., 1969. The contention is founded upon the premise that the statute requires that uninsured motorist coverage must be offered “* * * in limits for bodily injury or death set forth in Section 7 — 203 of the Illinois Motor Vehicle Law’, approved July 11, 1957, as heretofore and hereafter amended, * * Our attention is then directed to sec. 7 — 202(7) of the Motor Vehicle Law (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1969, ch. 95½, sec. 7 — 202(7)) which excepts State owned automobiles from the requirements of the Financial Responsibility Law. (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1967, ch. 7A.) The argument is then made that the legislature granted the exemption to the State of IHinois from compliance with the Financial Responsibility Law for the reason that an injured motorist has an opportunity to sue in the Court of Claims and recover money damages if warranted. The case of Smiley v. Toney’s Estate, 44 Ill.2d 127, 254 N.E.2d 440, cited in the Petition for Rehearing is quoted in the opinion of the court on the point “The statutory coverage is mandatory, and may not be whittled away by any unduly restrictive definition.” In the particular instance involved the plaintiff was riding a bicycle when he was injured in a collision with an automobile being driven by Edward Mirielli, who was a party to the suit. The automobile was owned by the State of Illinois. The injured minor plaintiff was covered by the policy of insurance issued to his father with State Farm Mutual. Under the decision arrived at by us, Mirielli was uninsured. We did not have occasion to decide whether he was in the course of his employment for the State of Illinois at the time of the collision in question, and if we had done so it would not have been binding upon the State of Illinois, since they were not a party to the suit. This court did not find, on page 4 or elsewhere in its opinion, that Mirielli was within the scope of his State employment when the accident happened. The liability of the State was, therefore, not involved in this particular case. It is, of course, true that if Mirielli was in the course of his employment an action could have been brought on the minor’s behalf in the Court of Claims. It is also possible that a judgment could have been obtained against Mirielli individually and full compensation obtained by the plaintiff. These, however, are speculations. As we pointed out in the initial opinion: “There are many different possibilities by which there might be no liability under the several acts fixing liabilities with respect to governments and governmental subdivisions. Besides this, the provisions governing governmental liability have been and are often changed in many particulars.” Petitioner correctly cites Putnam v. New Amsterdam Casualty Co., 48 Ill.2d 71, 269 N.E.2d 97, for the proposition that the “* * * purpose of the statutory uninsured motorist provisions is to assure that compensation will be available to policy holders, in the event of injury by an uninsured motorist, to at least the same extent compensation is available for injury by a motorist who is insured in compliance with the Financial Responsibility Law.” We do not believe that the opportunity to sue in the Court of Claims for damages against the State of Illinois assures that compensation will be available against Edward Mirielli. We further do not believe that it is equally sure that the State is liable.  It is relatively unusual for the average driver or bicyclist to be injured by a State automobile. If the driver of the State automobile is uninsured, then the occurrence is within the scope of the mandatory uninsured motorist coverage. The fact that the State of Illinois is excused from complying with the Financial Responsibility provisions of the Illinois Motor Vehicle Act is immaterial. The legislature could have provided some sort of exception to the mandatory coverage of the uninsured motorist insurance law in a case where the motor vehicle was owned by the State of Illinois, but it did not do so. We think that the only purpose of the statutory reference in the Insurance Code to the Illinois Motor Vehicle Code is to establish the amount of the minimum limits for uninsured motorist coverage. This is pointed out by the Supreme Court in the case of Putnam v. New Amsterdam Casualty Company, supra, where it says: “* * * in 1967, the legislature made the coverage mandatory and expressed the intention that the limit stated in the Financial Responsibility Law should be deemed a minimum not precluding coverage in higher amounts.” The petition for rehearing filed by State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company is accordingly denied. G. MORAN, P. J., and EBERSPACHER, J„ concur.