Court Opinion

ID: 9819186
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-01 06:19:34.233326+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:38:29.253766
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE GALLAGHER, specially concurring: I concur with my colleagues’ conclusion in this case. I do believe, however, that it is important to comment further upon the substantive issues in this case, which will most probably need to be addressed by our supreme court, due to the conflicting decisions of this court. The applicable statutory provision (215 ILCS 5/143a — 2(4) (West 1992)) should fairly be interpreted to allow for coverage to the insured for the shortfall between the tortfeasor’s limits actually recovered by the plaintiff and the plaintiffs underinsured policy. Basically, the statute says that the limits of liability for the underinsured carrier are the limits of such coverage ($1 million herein), minus those amounts "actually recovered” from the tortfeasor ($600,000 "actually recovered” by plaintiff herein). Under a reasonable interpretation of the statute, plaintiff would be entitled to a $400,000 payment ($1,000,000 minus $600,000 equals $400,000). Otherwise, the very existence of underinsured coverage will depend upon the variable circumstances involving the number of persons in the accident, who is at fault, whether there is any contributory fault by the plaintiff, and most importantly, what the total coverage of the tortfeasor turns out to be. At the time an insured purchases underinsured coverage, all of these variables are unknown and unknowable to anyone. Therefore, all an insured might be purchasing, as counsel for defendant pointed out during oral argument, is the "potential” for insurance, not real insurance. Unfortunately, an insured is paying real premiums, not virtual or imaginary ones. Under the defendant’s proposed construction, there is no connection between what an insured reasonably believes he purchased and what he obtains. This outcome would be unique in the annals of contract law. A person may think he purchased a million dollars of underinsured coverage when, in truth, he has purchased quite less. The statutory language supports the following rule: where several claimants vie for the insurance of a single tortfeasor, such that the tortfeasor’s coverage is inadequate to fully compensate the injured parties, then an injured party’s underinsured coverage should be defined as the difference between the policy’s limits and what the insured actually recovers from the tortfeasor. In this case, that would clearly be $400,000.