Insurance – Total-loss Claim

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Nathan Sigler v. Geico Casualty Company, et al.,

Case No.: 19-2272

Officials: SYKES, Chief Judge, and KANNE and BARRETT, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Insurance – Total-loss Claim

Nathan Sigler totaled his 2001 Dodge Ram and filed a claim with GEICO, his auto insurer, for the loss. GEICO paid him for the value of the car, adjusted for depreciation, minus his deductible. Sigler claims he is entitled to more—namely, sales tax and title and tag transfer fees for a replacement vehicle, though he did not incur these costs. He filed a proposed class action against GEICO seeking damages for breach of contract. Illinois law governs this dispute. The district court dismissed the suit, holding that neither the GEICO policy nor Illinois insurance law requires payment of these costs when the insured does not incur them.

We affirm. The premise of Sigler’s suit is that sales tax and title and tag transfer fees are always part of “replacement cost” in a total-loss claim—regardless of whether the insured incurs these costs. That misreads the policy and the relevant Illinois insurance regulation. GEICO’s policy doesn’t promise to pay sales tax or title and tag transfer fees, and the Illinois Administrative Code requires a settling auto insurer to pay these costs only if the insured actually incurs and substantiates them with appropriate documentation. Because Sigler did not do so, the judge properly dismissed the suit.

Affirmed

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Derek A Hawkins is trademark corporate counsel for Harley-Davidson. Hawkins oversees the prosecution and maintenance of the Harley-Davidson’s international trademark portfolio in emerging markets.