This is kind of an interesting story.
There's a Missouri woman and
she's receiving a multimillion dollar arbitration award from her former
sexual partners car insurance provider believe it or not.
And that happened because the man gave her an STD when the two
had had sex in his Hyundai.
All right, so this for
the Washington post in the case of a Missouri woman who said she caught
a sexually transmitted disease after having sex in a car of a Geico member.
The state's appeals court ruled this week that the insurance company needed to do
more and now potentially owes her millions of dollars.
Now, typically car insurance covers things well like accidents, injuries.
And this is definitely an assault if he had a sexually transmitted disease and
he did not disclose it before they engaged in sexual contact.
But this case definitely seems like it is really kind of beyond the bounce.
So a Missouri Court of Appeals upheld a $5.2 million judgment on Tuesday
involving a Jackson County Missouri woman who said she unknowingly caught HPV.
That's the human papilloma virus during unprotected sex in the luxury sedan
of a former male romantic partner back in 2017 and
to the extent you may not be familiar with HPV.
It can cause genital warts, also, various cancers and
it also happens to be one of the most common STDs in the United States,
according to the National Foundation for infectious diseases.
80% of sexually active men and women will be infected with HPV in their lifetime.
Now despite HPV prevalence.
Well the woman who was identified only as MO.
Wasn't going to allow this man who is identified as MB.
To get away with effectively assaulting her.
The woman alleged the Kansas man had been previously diagnosed with HPV but
did not tell MO about it or take measures to prevent transmitting the virus to MO.
At a gynecology exam about a year after the relationship again,
the woman was diagnosed with HPV according to court records.
So the woman contacted Geico and demanded a million dollar in damages for
negligence and negligent infliction of emotional distress.
Which is very common in terms of claims involving torts.
And at first Geico was not having it, putting the blame on the woman.
We know this also for the post that after Geico investigated the claim,
the insurance company argued that the man told the woman.
That he had been diagnosed with HPV-positive throat cancer and
that the man was not diagnosed with the STD before 2017,
according to the court documents.
When the insurance company denied the settlement and
said the woman failed to prevent her STD infection.
The case was sent to arbitration and May 2021 an arbitrator sided with MO.
And awarded her 5.2 million in damages to be paid by Geico and
Geico added that their clients insurance car covers car stuff and
then they were not willing to give up.
So Geico argued that the judgment didn't fall in line with Missouri law claiming
that the court claiming.
To the court that the man's policy covered injuries that only came out of
the ownership and maintenance or use of the auto.
And the company also claimed the injuries to the woman identified in court
documents as MO.
Arose from an intervening cause namely her failure to prevent transmission of STDs by
having unprotected sex.
But of course, in a published opinion this week,
the three judge panel sided with the lower court against Geico.
This is very, very interesting.
I will definitely say that this is exactly what this kind of company gets for
having arbitration clauses.
Cuz hey, it didn't work out in their favor and they're stuck with it.
>> Yeah, there's two different parts of this Adrian.
So one is arbitration part and I'm super happy that this happened to Geico
because of this, which I'll explain in a second because I'm not sure.
I want you all to understand that it's really important, okay.
And then there's an initial part which is her suing for 5.2 million.
I'm not like, well, let's find out if we agree or disagree with it.
I think her claim is totally absurd.
I think that the fact that they had the sex in the car is incidental to the car.
I mean I could have had the sex anywhere.
And now all of a sudden Geico owes $5.2 million.
I think that's totally nuts.
And you said it was assault because he didn't tell her.
But you read 80% of sexually active people have HPV,
so they might not even know they have HPV.
And so it depends on the fact pattern, but
wouldn't that make every car insurance company liable.
for any sex in any car, given that 80% of the American,
sexually active Americans have HPV.
Okay, so first it is definitely assault if you know you have an STD and
you do not protect someone or you do not let them know in advance.
So you can get full consent, you're looking at assault.
And it is also something that is a chargeable offense in most states.
So you can get prosecutors to actually prosecute for it even though it's not.
And this is something that kind of came out of largely the AIDS epidemic and
trying to hold people accountable, but it also extends to HPV.
We saw it in herpes with Usher.
He ended up being held the task and sued civilly.
And I, I definitely agree with you in terms of the car being incidental to
the sex without, without question because it essentially means that if I have sex
with someone in my own home and or or in their home and they transmit the virus
to me, what am I gonna sue state farm for my homeowner, their homeowner's insurance
policy, this is absolutely wild and I do believe this is a product.
If you got the wrong arbitrator, you got the wrong arbitrator on the wrong day.
And because the courts have set up, it's been structured such that arbitration
verdicts are so difficult to overturn and reverse that.
This is a product of, you know, capitalism creating a system by way of the little
people not being able to win and they drew the wrong arbitrator and
the little person one to the tune of 5.2 million.
And so maybe Geico will stop the shenanigans and nonsense.
But I actually see them appealing this all the way,
of course, look, I don't blame them for appealing.
If if I was in their shoes, I appealed living crap out of it.
I mean, I mean every car, every house like you said that guy, the state farm guy that
drops out of the homes and the tree falls on them and stuff.
And now they're gonna have to do an ad where you know that he's got HPV and
then all of a sudden they gotta pay off insurance.
That's, it's i in my opinion, the judgment is totally nuts.
But I want to distinguish it from, look, Adrian does a legal segment for
us on rebel headquarters called overruled.
She's just telling you what the law is on assault, right?
And so I want to be clear on that.
But now the reason we're celebrating Geico losing this despite the absurdity is
because guys, they put arbitration clauses in.
Almost everything now.
And almost all the arbitrators are corporate lawyers,
corporations have an unbelievable win rate in arbitration and then you're screwed.
You can't take it to a court.
And a lot of times you, it's like a standard language you sign and
they're like, ha ha you go to arbitration, you lost all your rights.
And they went almost all the time.
But now in this one case where they lost their like, wait a minute,
I can't take it to a court.
Well, this isn't fair.
Well, exactly.
Then why'd you put it in all your contracts?
So cry me a river.
I love that you lost the $5 million.
Yes. This is I, I find this verdict or
this judgment to be absolutely remarkable.
Also too, we really got to give it to the plaintiff's attorneys here because that is
a novel approach to go after the insurance provider because no one would really
do that.
Of course you cast a very wide net hoping, to rope in the biggest pockets possible,
but at the same time to think to actually go after the insurance provider is,
it's, it's kind of mind blowing.
And so I know that that litigator is definitely very,
very happy with the outcome.
But again, I see them appealing this all the way through and
every other insurance company and all their money, they're gonna come out of
the woodwork filing briefs against the judgment and the whole deal.
And so I don't know if this if this ultimate judgment is going to
be able to stick by the way, it's a win win either way.
So if Geico loses, ha ha you shouldn't have put the arbitration clause in there
that you normally use to crush the little guy, right?
But if they win that might invalidate all the arbitration clauses because
if companies can ignore arbitration, why can't people, so
that might turn out to be a really important case?
Adrian?
Mhm.
That would be awesome.
The only thing that I'm not too much in terms of confidence in is just how are U.
S. Supreme Court is completely unraveling
things and making it up as they go, not adhering to precedent and
just coming up with with whatever they want.
And so I could definitely see them finding a way to make it the exception or
all of these things that just tell you, we don't have that, that reliability and
that consistency that we need to actually have a functioning justice system.
Yeah.
And then finally you're right about the plaintiff lawyer.
I mean I hadn't even thought of that right?
I mean if if johnnie Cochran was the Michael Jordan of lawyers before
he was OJ's lawyer and many but before O.
J did wonderful incredible civil rights work.
Okay.
But see he was inarguably amazing lawyer, if he was Michael Jordan,
we were wondering who the the next start was gonna be.
This guy has got to be Lebron James winning this case, wow.
This guy's got this arbitrator will never get hired again.
Not by these big companies.
This was their last hurrah.
That's right.
Look, the guy should instantly go into lawyer hall of Fame.
Okay.
But Adrian makes a good point.
Now.
The corporations will say no we don't want that arbitrator and
that's how they select arbitrators.
That will rule only for the corporations.
So that's why the arbitration clauses are so problematic.
And so it depends on the contract that they're in and depends on a lot of things.
You know, do you have equal power in the contract, in which case,
if you both agree to the arbitration?
That makes sense.
But oftentimes it's used with unequal power to discriminate against
the average person.
And once you lose the arbitration in a system that's rigged against you,
you cannot go to the courts.
That's why it's usually incredibly unfair.
And that's why we love this story where finally the injustice against
the corporation and they scream.
Why are you grabbing me?
Pretty sure that you hit us first.
Yeah for real.
And I'm afraid my car insurance premiums will go up.
But that's okay.
Okay.
Well and
you know what they could have just didn't have to go through all these proceedings.
They could have figured this out in 15 minutes or less.
Very good point.