INSURANCE-RELATED COURT CASES
Digested from case reports published online
COURT DECISIONS
No stacking allowed
On December 5, 2018, shortly before 9 p.m., Mark Kuhn was driving a school bus carrying the Normal West High School junior varsity girls’ basketball team, their coach Steven Price, and adult volunteer Charlie Crabtree. The bus was traveling west on Interstate 74 in McLean County. Traveling in the opposite direction, Ryan Hute was driving a 2010 Kenworth semitruck with an attached trailer in the course of his employment with Farrell Trucking. The semitruck crossed the center grass median of the highway, continued driving east in the westbound lanes, and struck the school bus in a head-on collision. Hute and Crabtree died as a result of the accident, and other occupants of the school bus were injured.
Owners Insurance Company insured the semitruck that Hute was driving under a commercial vehicle policy issued to Farrell Trucking. The policy also listed Hute as a covered driver. Farrell Trucking is located in Iowa, but the parties stipulated that the policy should be interpreted under Illinois law.
Mark Kuhn and Karen Kuhn brought an action against Hute’s estate and entities related to Farrell Trucking. They then filed suit seeking a declaration that the
$1 million liability limits in the insurance policy covering the semitruck and six other vehicles (three semitrucks and four trailers in total) could be stacked, for a combined $7 million in liability coverage. In their amended complaint, the Kuhns added as defendants the other bus passengers who were potential claimants in the underlying action to bind them to the terms of the judgment in this suit.
The Kuhns and Owners filed cross-motions for summary judgment. The trial court granted the Kuhns’ motion for summary judgment. It ruled that the policy was ambiguous and therefore should be construed against Owners, such that stacking of the liability limits was appropriate.
The appellate court reversed the trial court’s decision. It held that the policy’s anti-stacking clause was unambiguous on its face and, when read together with the declarations and other policy provisions, that the anti-stacking clause should be enforced as written.
This court allowed the petition for leave to appeal filed by the Kuhns and other potential claimants.
On appeal, Owners cited the following policy provision:
“5. The Limit of Insurance for this coverage may not be added to the limits for the same or similar coverage applying to other autos insured by this policy to determine the amount of coverage available for any one accident or covered pollution cost or expense, regardless of the number of:
- Covered autos;
- Insureds;
- Premiums paid;
- Claims made or suits brought;
- Persons injured; or
- Vehicles involved in the accident.”
The first page of the declarations listed three covered autos and listed the bodily injury limit only once. The second declarations page listed a fourth covered vehicle and again listed the limits for bodily injury coverage. The circuit court ruled that the liability limits could be stacked four times, once for each vehicle, and the appellate court held that it could be stacked twice, based on the liability limits being listed two times.
The court stated that the only reasonable explanation for the liability limits appearing for a second time on the second declarations page was that the information for all four covered vehicles could not fit on one physical page. The court held that: “[w]hen read together with the declarations, the anti-stacking clause unambiguously prohibits stacking of bodily injury liability coverage.”
The court affirmed the judgment of the appellate court, which reversed the judgment of the circuit court and remanded with directions to enter summary judgment for Owners.
Kuhn v. Owners Insurance Company—Supreme Court of the State of Illinois—No. 129895—May 23, 2024.
