An Illinois state appeals court has affirmed a trial court’s finding that a student-athlete on the road at a baseball tournament was covered by the athletic department’s insurance policy.
Specifically, the court found that the policy generally covered the plaintiff’s stay and did not specifically limit the coverage to the plaintiff’s transportation to and from the event.
Plaintiff Brendan Regan, a member of the St. Ambrose University baseball team, was on the road with the rest of the team at a baseball tournament in Florida. On March 13, 2002, the team’s only scheduled “day off” during the tournament, the plaintiff sustained a spinal cord injury when he dove into a wave and struck the ocean floor at a beach adjacent to the hotel where the team was staying.
At the time of the accident, St. Ambrose was a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). As a member, St. Ambrose was required by the NAIA bylaws to be enrolled in the NAIA catastrophic athletic injury insurance program under a policy issued by defendant.
The policy states in part that defendant will insure student athletes in all sanctioned and officially recognized intercollegiate sports (Class I) and pay benefits as follows:
“Coverage is provided for participation in scheduled games, supervised practice sessions and during authorized group or team travel that is paid for or reimbursed by the Sponsoring Organization in connection with such games or practice sessions.” The policy defines “covered travel” as follows:
“’Covered Travel’ means team or group travel by participants in a Covered Event:
(a) directly to or from a Covered Event;
(b) authorized and paid for or reimbursed by the Sponsoring Organization; and
(c) supervised by staff members or a designated representative of the Sponsoring Organization.
Covered Travel begins with departing from the meeting place for such travel and ends upon the release of the Insured from the Sponsoring Organization’s supervision.”
The court noted that the trip to Florida for the baseball tournament was authorized by St. Ambrose and paid for with money from the university athletic department fund and team fundraising activities. Each player on the team was required to pay for the cost of his airfare, hotel, and food during the trip. The plaintiff testified in his deposition that in order to raise money to cover these costs, he and his teammates sought and received pledges from sponsors based upon the number of miles they ran during conditioning. The money raised by the players in turn went into a fund which Coach James Callahan controlled and used to pay for the team’s airfare as well as hotel and meal expenses during the trip. St. Ambrose paid for the players’ transportation to and from Midway airport in Chicago and the airport in Miami as well as to and from baseball games scheduled during the tournament in Florida. The university also paid the cost of entering the tournament.
After the injury, the plaintiff filed a claim under the policy at issue in this case. The defendant, Mutual of Omaha Insurance Company, denied the claim based on its conclusion that “the injury occurred during an off day and the injury did not occur during a scheduled game or supervised practice session nor travel directly [sic] or from a scheduled game or supervised practice session.”
Thereafter, the plaintiff filed the instant declaratory judgment action, seeking a finding that he was a covered insured under the policy issued by defendant and thus entitled to receive all the benefits available to him under that policy. Both sides moved for summary judgment.
Following a hearing on the motions, the trial court entered an order granting the plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment and denying the defendant’s motion for summary judgment. In support of its ruling, the court focused on the portion of the policy’s definition of covered travel which states “[c]overed travel begins with departing from the meeting place for such travel and ends upon the release of the Insured from the Sponsoring Organization’s supervision.”
The defendant appealed.
Its first argument centered on the fact that the plaintiff was participating in unsupervised recreational activities and not during “covered travel.”
The appeals court wrote that it “recognized that plaintiff was not physically moving or being transported directly to or from a game or practice session at the time he was injured. We note, however, that the policy provision in question does not state ‘covered travel’ means team or group transportation directly to or from a covered event. Rather, that provision defines ‘covered travel’ in part as team or group travel directly to or from a covered event.”
Similarly, the appeals court was not moved by the defendant’s second argument that “because St. Ambrose did not pay or reimburse plaintiff for his airfare, lodging, meal, and entertainment expenses, the second prong of the definition of covered travel, which requires that the travel be ‘paid for or reimbursed by’ St. Ambrose, was not satisfied.”
The appeals court noted, however, that the players did not keep the money necessary to pay for airfare, hotel, and food, but, rather, turned that money over to Coach Callahan, who in turn secured group rates for the team at the hotel and the airline. Furthermore, the university paid the entry fee for the tournament and the cost of transporting the players to and from baseball games scheduled during the tournament. In addition, the university paid the cost of transporting the team to and from Midway airport in Chicago and the cost of transporting the team to and from the Miami airport. In light of these facts and circumstances, we conclude there is no genuine issue of material fact that the team’s travel was paid for by St. Ambrose.”
Finally, the defendant argued that the plaintiff’s activities were not supervised by St. Ambrose. The appeals court identified ambiguity in the policy, noting that it neither defines “supervise” nor qualifies in any way the type or amount of supervision that must be provided. It went on to find “that the articulation of these rules and the steps taken to ensure that they were followed were consistent with the type of supervision intended by the policy provision in question.”
Brendan Regan v. Mutual of Omaha Insurance Company; App.Ct. Ill. Dist. 1 D.5; No. 1-05-1656; 2007 Ill. App. Lexis 894; 8/17/07
Attorneys of Record: (for defendant) Michael J. Smith and Warren von Schleicher, Michael J. Smith & Associates, Chicago, IL. (for plaintiff) Donald A. Shapiro and Charles A. Wallace, Donald A. Shapiro, Ltd., Chicago, IL.
