published11. June 2022, 11:42
A woman is suing Geico for contracting a sexually transmitted disease in a company-insured car. A court now awarded her more than five million dollars.
The US group Geico has several million customers in the USA.
Geico
Geico’s symbol and mascot is a laughing gecko.
Imago
A woman in the United States has been awarded $5.2 million in damages from her husband’s auto insurance company for contracting an sexually transmitted disease in her partner’s car. The Missouri woman successfully argued that her partner negligently infected her with human papillomavirus (HPV) and that his insurance company had to pay for her “injuries and damages”.
The woman, who is only called MO in court documents, had demanded compensation for “medical expenses” and for “past and future mental and physical pain”. A judge at an arbitration tribunal put the appropriate amount of damages at $5.2 million.
“The insured person should have disclosed his diagnosis to MO before the sexual activity, but he did not,” the referee said. Accordingly, the man knew that he had a positive HPV smear test in connection with throat cancer. Nevertheless, at the end of 2017 he had unprotected sex with the victim in his car.
Auto insurer Geico had rejected the woman’s initial $1 million settlement offer. The company appealed against the amount of compensation determined by the arbitral tribunal. The appeals court in Missouri declared the sum but now admissible.
Elon Musk criticizes the verdict
The verdict triggered a wave of reactions on the Internet. Tech billionaire Elon Musk sharply criticized: “Crazy claims for damages like this are a big reason why car insurance costs so much,” he wrote on Twitter. “It should be possible to sue law firms that are pursuing crazy claims for damages.”
HPV infections are among the most common sexually transmitted infections in the United States. Certain HPV strains can cause cancer. There is a vaccine against common HPV strains.
(AFP/trx)