Sanders v. Illinois Union Insurance Co.
2019 IL App (1st) 180158 (Ill. App., 2019)Words & Phrases
Trigger Of CoverageTrial Judge
Celia GamrathAppellate Judge
PucinskiHolding
Coverage for the “offense” of malicious prosecution is triggered when exoneration occurred.Fact Summary
Plaintiffs, Rodell Sanders and City of Chicago Heights (City), appeal from the trial court’s dismissal with prejudice of their second amended complaint pursuant to section 2-619(a)(9) of the Code of Civil Procedure (Code) (735 ILCS 5/2-619(a)(9) (West 2016)). On appeal, plaintiffs argue that the trial court erred in concluding that the insurance policies issued by defendants, Illinois Union Insurance Company (Illinois Union) and Starr Indemnity & Liability Company (Starr), did not provide coverage for Sanders’s underlying claim of malicious prosecution against the City (Sanders suit). For the reasons that follow, we reverse and remand.
Although defendants advance other definitions of “offense” that are more favorable to them, the other language of the Illinois Union policies supports a conclusion that the term “offense” refers to the legal cause of action for malicious prosecution, not the underlying wrongful conduct giving rise to a legal cause of action for malicious prosecution. As noted, the Illinois Union policies define “personal injury” by reference to a list of “offenses.” Importantly, this list of offenses refers exclusively to legal causes of actions by their proper, legal names, e.g., false arrest, false imprisonment, malicious prosecution, libel, defamation, wrongful eviction, etc. Nowhere in the policies’ list of offenses does it refer to the underlying wrongful acts themselves, i.e., arresting, imprisoning, or prosecuting someone without probable cause; telling lies about someone; or physically removing someone from a property. The policies’ reference to the offenses by their proper, legal names instead of by their underlying wrongful conduct makes clear that coverage is triggered by the occurrence of the completed cause of action (in this case, upon Sanders’s exoneration) and not by merely the underlying wrongful conduct. See Milwaukee Guardian Insurance, Inc. v. Taraska, 236 Ill. App. 3d 973, 975 (1992) (“[T]he provisions of an insurance policy should be read and interpreted as an integrated whole, not as isolated parts.”).
We believe such an interpretation is consistent with what the average person would understand to be covered under the Illinois Union policies. For the reasons discussed above, the average person, reading that the Illinois Union policies provided coverage for the “offenses” of false arrest, malicious prosecution, libel, wrongful eviction, etc., would believe that the policies provided coverage for the legal claims of false arrest, malicious prosecution, libel, wrongful eviction, etc. The average person would have no reason to think that although the “offenses” were identified by the proper, legal names of whole causes of action, they actually only were intended to refer to the underlying wrongful conduct. Thus, at the point the elements of those causes of actions were met, the average insured would believe that coverage is triggered. Where the term “offense” is coupled with the titles of legal causes of action and does not specifically refer to the base wrongful acts alone, to conclude otherwise would be to “adopt an interpretation which rests on ‘gossamer distinctions’ that the average person, for whom the policy is written, cannot be expected to understand.” Founders Insurance Co., 237 Ill. 2d at 433.
For the above reasons, we conclude that the plain and ordinary meaning of the term “offense,” as it is used in relation to “malicious prosecution” in the Illinois Union policies, refers to the completed, legal cause of action of malicious prosecution. The tort of malicious prosecution requires proof of five elements: “(1) the commencement or continuation by the defendant of an original judicial proceeding against the plaintiff; (2) termination of the original proceeding in favor of the plaintiff; (3) absence of probable cause for the proceeding; (4) malice; and (5) special damages.” Grundhoefer v. Sorin, 2014 IL App (1st) 131276, ¶ 11. Here, Sanders’s claim for malicious prosecution was not complete until he was exonerated in 2014. See Ferguson, 213 Ill. 2d at 99 (“A cause of action for malicious prosecution does not accrue until the criminal proceeding on which it is based has been terminated in the plaintiff’s favor.”). Accordingly, coverage under the defendants’ policies was not triggered until 2014, when Sanders was acquitted after his third trial.