On Could 12, 2025, the Illinois Appellate Court docket for the Second District of Illinois held, for the primary time, that “[r]esolving some questions of causation will probably be essentially included within the appraisal course of” in affirming the trial court docket’s grant of Plaintiff’s movement for judgment on the pleadings to compel State Farm to appraisal. 1 This choice is more likely to change the panorama of insurers contesting appraisal as a “protection” dispute in Illinois transferring ahead.
The insured property was broken on account of a hail and wind occasion for which the insured submitted a declare to State Farm. State Farm agreed there was injury to gutters, downspouts, and aluminum wraps on sure window frames and trim and made cost to the insured. The insured disagreed with the evaluation and believed that the injury was in depth sufficient to require the alternative of home windows on the dwelling and invoked appraisal. State Farm refused the demand for appraisal, stating that it considered the variations in estimates to be a dispute over “protection” and never the quantity of loss.
I used to be retained by the insured to symbolize her in an effort to compel State Farm to appraisal. The trial court docket granted our movement for judgment on the pleadings and compelled the dispute to appraisal. State Farm appealed.
The Illinois Appellate Court docket for the Second District of Illinois likened State Farm’s argument to constructing a home on a “basis of sand.” 2
Within the instant matter, nonetheless, there may be little doubt that the home windows of the house are ‘lined’ underneath the owners coverage. There’s a dispute as as to whether or not stated home windows have been broken by the storm, however that’s not the identical as a dispute as as to whether the home windows have been lined by the coverage in any respect.
The Appellate Court docket went on to state that for the reason that Defendant had already admitted the hailstorm brought on injury to the trim of the home windows on the house and paid for that injury, “[i]t stretches credulity for [State Farm] to now assert that there’s a query concerning whether or not the home windows are ‘lined’ by the coverage. There could also be a dispute as as to whether the home windows have been broken by the hailstorm, however that’s not a problem of protection. It is a matter of loss. And appraisal is ideally suited to resolve disputes over loss.” 3
In reaching its choice, the Second District Court docket of Appeals not solely appeared on the persuasive choices of Illinois federal district courts and an unpublished Illinois appellate court docket case from the Fifth District, Shelter Mutual Insurance coverage Firm v. Morrow, 4 but additionally appeared to different overseas jurisdictions resembling Iowa, Minnesota, Florida, Delaware, and Rhode Island, to call a number of. In the end, the Illinois Appellate Court docket for the Second District discovered Illinois regulation “clear and unambiguous” in concluding that the trial court docket appropriately compelled appraisal. 5
Lastly, the court docket held that State Farm’s affirmative protection of late discover didn’t have any bearing on the suitable to demand appraisal. 6 In different phrases, the appellate court docket held that the declare of late discover could also be a matter that might must be resolved if the case continued past appraisal, however was not a problem that prevented or precluded appraisal.
1 Zhao v. State Farm Hearth & Cas. Co., 2025 IL App (2nd) 240723 (In poor health. App. Could 12, 2025).
2 Id. at ¶ 25.
3 Id. at ¶ 26.
4 Shelter Mutual Ins. Co. v. Morrow, 2023 IL App (fifth) 230249-U (In poor health. App. Aug. 24, 2023).
5 Zhao, 2025 IL App (2nd) 240723 at ¶ 34.
6 Zhao at ¶ 38.
