EAST ST. LOUIS – Country Mutual Insurance must reimburse Continental Western Insurance for $250,540.90 in legal fees from suits over an ambulance accident, Chief U.S. District Judge Nancy Rosenstengel ruled on Sept. 10.
Continental defended Hamel Fire Protection District as excess insurer in Madison County court after Country Mutual declined primary coverage.
Country Mutual claimed its policy for Alhambra-Hamel Ambulance Service didn’t apply because Alhambra and Hamel fire protection districts owned the vehicle.
Rosenstengel called the claim disingenuous last year, when she granted summary judgment assigning primary coverage to Country Mutual.
Country Mutual represented the ambulance service.
The lawyer it provided to the ambulance service, Stephen Mudge, disputed the accuracy of Continental’s billing records in an affidavit on Aug. 25.
Rosenstengel struck the affidavit at a hearing two days later, finding Country Mutual filed it out of time and without leave of court.
The accident happened in 2012, when a truck and an ambulance collided on Interstate 55 near Hamel.
Truck driver Daniel Eddinger sued the ambulance service and the fire departments in 2012, and alternate driver Rayburn Conway sued them in 2013.
Ambulance passenger Michelle Logue sued Eddinger in 2014, and his employer filed a third party complaint against the ambulance service and fire departments.
In 2017, with all three suits pending, Continental counsel Kent Cummings of Chicago sued Country Mutual.
All three suits settled, representing 14 years of litigation.
In 2018, Country Mutual counsel Keith Carlson of Chicago filed a counterclaim for equitable subrogation of its defense for Hamel Fire.
He wrote that Country Mutual paid $460,000 in settlement of Conway’s suit and $9,000 in settlement of Eddinger’s suit, “and Continental paid zero.”
He filed an affidavit of Hamel Fire treasurer Richard Gusewelle, stating the fire protection districts jointly owned the ambulance.
Carlson quoted a 1989 agreement for a joint ambulance district, providing for equal ownership of all property.
When Rosenstengel granted summary judgment, she gave greater weight to evidence from 2012.
“Not only is the certificate of title in the name of Alhambra-Hamel Ambulance Service, but the Country Mutual policy was issued directly to it,” she wrote.
“Moreover, the ambulance was listed on Country Mutual’s schedule of ‘covered autos you own.’”
This June, Continental counsel Adam Joffe submitted a petition for $240,146.18.
He wrote that Continental paid $180,010.30 to Mulherin Rehfeldt law firm, $20,466.94 to Heyl Royster, and $39,669.02 to legal vendors.
He wrote that the litigation was far more complex than a car versus car accident.
“Continental Western provided a robust defense to Hamel Fire,” Joffe wrote.
In July, Carlson responded that the petition was devoid of evidentiary support.
He followed up with Mudge’s affidavit, to no avail.
Rosenstengel awarded every penny, finding Country Mutual’s position on evidentiary support “mind boggling.”
“Continental submitted hundreds of pages of attorney billing records, including the time spent and descriptions of all work completed,” she wrote.
She added $10,394.72 in interest.