Dan Stack
Madison County's goofiest lawsuit vanished in a puff of mootness.
Circuit Judge Daniel Stack granted summary judgment to Affirmative Insurance Dec. 18, in a suit that class action attorney Lanny Darr of Alton filed as a class action plaintiff.
Darr claimed that when an Affirmative policyholder smashed his Ford Explorer and put it in a repair shop, the insurer should have rented him a vehicle as fine as his own.
He claimed they offered him a Neon.
He and his attorney, Evan Schaeffer of Godfrey, broke class action speed records by suing Affirmative 26 days after the crash.
Two days after he sued, Darr rented a Jeep Grand Cherokee from Roberts Motors.
Three days later Darr returned the Jeep and got a bill for $222.44.
Darr sent the bill to Affirmative. The insurer paid it.
Affirmative moved for summary judgment, arguing that it paid the full amount of the request.
Schaeffer and Darr answered that, "…its purported payment was not a 'payment' of a 'request,' but was actually an offer of settlement sent by a law firm after a lawsuit had been filed."
Schaeffer and Darr wrote that Affirmative lied about how much rental cars cost and how much it would reimburse.
They wrote, "Plaintiff relied on these statements and acted in a way that caused him to suffer damage."
Stack, at a hearing Dec. 18, granted summary judgment "on grounds of mootness."
The Record has ordered a copy of the transcript.