Court Opinion

ID: 9715266
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 05:59:03.551638+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:33.057834
License: Public Domain

Mr. JUSTICE HARRISON, dissenting: I respectfully dissent from the opinion of the majority. While I agree that the facts presented by this record leave little question as to the equity and justice of the result which the majority reaches, it is equally clear to me that the limitations imposed upon us by that very same record dictate another outcome. My colleagues have seen fit to amend the pleadings concerned in order that they conform to evidence admitted at trial. This procedure is expeditious, equitable, and proper where the record in question contains evidence supportive of such amendment, but as an intermediate appellate court, we are restricted to matter which has come within the cognizance of the trial court. Only that which is transmitted to us in the record for review may serve as a basis upon which we may amend the pleadings. After a thorough examination of this record it is my firm conclusion that the necessary evidence is simply not extant. I must certainly agree with the majority that in an action for negligence the burden of proof is upon the plaintiff to demonstrate that the person so charged was under a duty to protect the plaintiff from the injury which resulted; that the defendant failed to conform his conduct to the standards of that duty; that defendant’s conduct was the legal cause of the injury suffered; and finally, that actual loss or damage resulted which embodies the fact of the injury. (Clinton v. Commonwealth Edison Co. (1976), 36 Ill. App. 3d 1064, 1067, 344 N.E.2d 509; Restatement (Second) of Torts §328A (1965); Prosser, §30 (4th ed. 1971).) But as the court in Clinton held, where a party has failed to prove any one of these necessary elements, his cause of action must fail. See Clinton Commonwealth Edison Co. (1976), 36 Ill. App. 3d 1064, 1067-68. In the instant case the plaintiffs presented persuasive evidence of a duty of care, of the breach of such duty, and of proximate cause leading to injury. But, as the learned trial judge emphatically communicated to counsel for the plaintiffs in a colloquy during the latter’s closing argument, the trial court was left without any means by which it might determine the dimensions of a compensible legal injury and, in certain respects, the very existence of such an injury was left in question. No policy of insurance was produced at trial which would enable the court to determine what amount of coverage was intended to be available to the Picketts, or how long such benefits were to remain in force, or under what, if any, conditions they were to continue, and fundamentally, what form or extent of physical disability would be required to activate the payment of insurance benefits. It was not enough to show that Mr. Pickett, regrettably, suffered a severe back injury which prevented him from following the course of his trade during the times alleged. That was not the injury which the trial court was urged to recognize. Plaintiffs’ complaint charges negligent failure to procure insurance. According to its terms, such a policy of insurance would define the rights and responsibilities of the parties. The breach of duty is here, the failure to procure such a policy which resulted in costs to the plaintiffs, in the form of loan payments, which otherwise would have been provided through insurance benefits. The fact that plaintiffs were uninsured and were forced to find other means to meet this obligation is the legal injury for which a claim was presented. The nature and amount of the contemplated coverage which they were allegedly denied would be the measure of actual loss suffered. In addition, proof of the degree of disability required under the terms of a given policy would be a necessary precondition to any recovery whatsoever. Of these elements of their cause, there was a total failure of proof. Ironically, I must assume, by logical extension, that the seeds of such proof lay immediately before the plaintiff, inchoate, and yet implicit in evidence which was submitted to the trial court. I refer to the premium of $5.70 paid each month for the insurance in question. If a specific premium amount was quoted to the plaintiffs and thereafter faithfully remitted by them, is it not implicit that it was in reference to a particular policy of insurance, with a specific amount of coverage,, of a specific duration, to be payable under prescribed conditions? Plaintiffs’ testimony indicated that the defendant’s loan officer quoted the premium figure from a rate book at his desk. Counsel for the plaintiffs, in his motion entitled “Request to Produce Documents”, filed on March 30, 1979, sought, under paragraph No. 4, “the rate book of the carrier, or carriers, of credit accident and health insurance with respect to which defendant was taking applications for said insurance, as of October 12,1973.” The record nowhere indicates that the Picketts submitted such evidence to the court, if indeed the rate book was ever produced by the defendant. That evidence would certainly have indicated a particular insurer or insurers, whose policies might have been examined in order to provide the framework by which the court could determine the nature and extent of the injury. As well, in testimony, the names of at least two insurers were mentioned as being involved in the writing of this form of protection. No evidence was offered as to the provisions of policies issued by either company. Nor did the plaintiffs call to the witness stand any insurance expert qualified to enlighten the court as to what pattern of coverage had been generally available in the credit insurance industry to would-be insureds such as the Picketts in 1973. To enable a party to garner a remedy rightfully his, it is a prerequisite that he address the court with a claim, the elements of which are supported by the necessary proof of underlying facts. The appellants herein have failed to do so. Accordingly, I would affirm the decision of the circuit court.