— The GEICO insurance company won't have to pay $1 million to a man and woman who had sex in a vehicle which allegedly led to the woman contracting a sexually transmitted disease in the vehicle.
The GEICO car sex lawsuit involves a woman (M.O.) and man (M.B.) who began a sexual relationship in November 2017 which continued for more than two years.
They had unprotected sex at M.O.’s house in Kansas City, Missouri, and at M.B.’s Kansas home between November and December of 2017.
One of those encounters allegedly occurred in M.B.'s 2014 Hyundai Genesis.
In October 2018, M.O. was diagnosed with a human papillomavirus (HPV) infection, but the couple continued to have unprotected sex after the woman knew she had HPV.
The woman says M.B. never told her he had HPV and he failed to use adequate protection.
The couple separated in November 2020 and the woman sued the man for negligent transmission of HPV. The man then filed a $1 million claim with GEICO in December 2020.
Not surprisingly, GEICO denied the demand for coverage of M.O.’s STD liability claim.
GEICO filed its lawsuit in April 2021 seeking a court determination the company owed no coverage for the STD claim.
GEICO emphasized its argument the insurance policy applied to the normal use of the 2014 Hyundai Genesis for transportation.
The district court agreed with GEICO by ruling the auto insurance policy did not provide coverage for the "transmission of a sexually-transmitted disease in an automobile."
However, the woman and M.B. met with an arbitrator regarding the STD claim in May 2021, an event GEICO didn't know about.
The arbitrator entered an award in favor of M.O. for $5.2 million finding, “there was sexual activity in [M.B’s] automobile in November/December 2017” that “directly caused, or directly contributed to cause, M.O. to be infected with HPV.”
GEICO did not find out about the arbitration until after it occurred, and according to GEICO, the arbitrator was never informed of sexual activity between M.O. and M.B. on any occasion other than in the vehicle.
But the couple admitted they had many non-auto sexual encounters and even made claims under a homeowner’s policy for the same alleged injury.
GEICO Car Sex Lawsuit Appeal
After the district court denial, the couple appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit which agreed with the lower court decision in favor of GEICO.
According to the appeals court, the question is if GEICO must cover M.B’s potential liability under his 2017 GEICO auto policy for allegedly transmitting a sexually transmitted disease (HPV) to M.O. while the two were engaged in sexual activity in M.B’s GEICO-insured vehicle.
"The answer is clear: it does not. As the Kansas Supreme Court has sensibly held, 'the mere fact that an accident takes place in or near the automobile does not impose responsibility upon the insurer.'” — Eighth Circuit
The appeals court agreed with the lower district court ruling how the auto insurance policy is no different from numerous policies Kansas courts have long interpreted:
"[By] its clear terms, it requires that bodily injury, to be covered by the Auto Policy, arise out of the normal ownership, maintenance, or use of an automobile as an automobile."
According to the Eighth Circuit, for an injury to arise from a vehicle’s operation, maintenance, or use, the vehicle’s use must be more than “merely incidental” to the injury and must instead be the “cause thereof,” and there "must be some causal connection between the accident and the automobile allegedly involved.”
"The insurance policy unambiguously covers only bodily injury arising out of the ownership, maintenance, or use of [M.B’s] automobile. Because M.O.’s injuries did not “aris[e] out of the . . . use” of [M.B’s] automobile, the district court did not err in granting summary judgment to GEICO. We affirm." — Eighth Circuit
The GEICO car sex lawsuit case is titled: GEICO General Insurance Company and Government Employees Insurance Company v. M.O. and M.B.