Greenberger v. GEICO Gen. Ins. Co., 09-1603

Driver's suit against his insurer for breach of contract

Greenberger v. GEICO Gen. Ins. Co., 09-1603, concerned a challenge to the district court's dismissal of plaintiff's statutory consumer fraud claim and an entry of summary judgment in favor of the insurer on the breach of contract and common law fraud claims, in plaintiff's suit against his insurer for damage to his automobile from an automobile collision. 


In affirming, the court held that all of plaintiff's claims are foreclosed by the Illinois Supreme Court's decision in Avery v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co., 835, N.E.2d 801 (Ill. 2005), which established the common-sense proposition that a policyholder's suit against his insurer for breach of its promise to restore his collision-damages car to its preloss condition cannot succeed without an examination of the car, and here, because plaintiff gave away his car, he cannot prove that what the insurer paid him was inadequate to restore the car to its preloss condition.  Further, Avery also made clear that fraud claims must contain something more than reformulated allegations of a contractual breach, and here, plaintiff's breach of contract allegations are dressed up in the language of fraud, which cannot support statutory or common law fraud claims.

Related Link:

• Read the Seventh Circuit's Full Decision in Greenberger v. GEICO Gen. Ins. Co., 09-1603