In February 2021, a woman who was filing a lawsuit against GEICO after she claimed to have caught an STD from her former boyfriend, an insured member, after she hooked up with him in his car.
Well the court's ruling has been made…and she WON.
The Missouri Court of Appeals has ruled that GEICO is to pay the woman $5.2 million after an arbitration hearing between the woman and her ex found that the former couple having sex inside his vehicle "directly caused, or directly contributed to cause" the HPV infection.
A breakdown of the arbitration hearing, and GEICO'S involvement, comes from the Virginian Pilot:
Geico claimed it did not know the man and woman had entered into arbitration and, when it found out, it sought to intervene in the court case. The company argued the arbitration award was reached through collusion and fraud, violated its rights to due process and was unenforceable. The lower court rejected Geico's requests and confirmed the award, prompting the insurance company's appeal because it said it did not have a "meaningful opportunity" to defend its interests, according to court documents. The appeals court found that Geico did not have the right to "re-litigate" the issues after the award had been affirmed.
In a separate opinion, judge Tom Chapman said that though he believes GEICO was offered "no meaningful opportunity to participate" in the lawsuit, existing law "relegates the insurer to the status of a bystander."
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