News

Chicago Insurance Team Secures Appellate Victory in Stairway Collapse Matter

Chicago, Ill. (February 17, 2022) - Chicago Managing Partner Danny Worker, Partner Mary F. Sitko, and Associate Abigail Horvat recently secured an appellate victory when the Appellate Court of Illinois, Fourth District, affirmed the lower court's judgment in favor of Lewis Brisbois' insurer client, after determining that it had no obligation to cover two landlords in a suit arising from a tenant's personal injury.

As reported in Law360, the underlying matter involved a tenant who sued her landlords after an allegedly defective staircase collapsed under her, causing her to suffer physical injuries. Lewis Brisbois' insurer client disclaimed coverage for the landlord insureds. After concluding that the insurer had no obligation to cover the landlords, the trial court granted judgment in favor of Lewis Brisbois' client. The landlords appealed.

On appeal, the appellate court determined that policy exclusions prevented the landlords from accessing their insurance policy for a defense against the tenant, including an exclusion on claims related to resident injuries on the insured's property. Although the court acknowledged that the term "resident" was not defined in the policy, it determined that this missing definition did not render the exclusion ambiguous, as the landlords had argued. According to the court, the injured tenant was a "resident" under the plain dictionary meaning of the word because she dwelled at the building "for a considerable time" pursuant to her two-year lease. Similarly, the court rejected the landlords' additional arguments concerning the policy's alleged ambiguities.

Mr. Worker is a chair of Lewis Brisbois' Insurance Coverage Practice and vice-chair of its Bad Faith Litigation Practice. Since his admission to the Illinois bar in 1987, he has tried or arbitrated over 50 cases to verdict in Illinois, Kansas, and North Carolina, providing advice on liability and coverage questions to insurance and other corporate clients. The matters that Mr. Worker has handled have resulted in over 20 reported appellate and supreme court decisions in Illinois, Ohio, and New Mexico.

Ms. Sitko is a member of Lewis Brisbois' Insurance Law Practice. She has represented insurers in coverage, bad faith, extra contractual, and uninsured/underinsured motorist cases. Her coverage practice in Illinois involves analyzing, litigating, and providing counsel on various policies and issues in Illinois. Ms. Sitko has successfully litigated numerous declaratory actions in both the trial and appellate courts and has several published appellate court decisions.

Ms. Horvat is a member of Lewis Brisbois' Insurance Law and Professional Liability Practices. Her practice focuses on complex insurance disputes involving primary and excess policies, coverage and bad faith litigation, and civil appeals.  

You may read the full Law360 article, titled "Ill. Panel Says Farmers Has No Duty in Staircase Collapse Suit," here (subscription may be required).

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