A Clark County, Illinois trial judge has granted a motion brought by Johnson & Bell, Ltd. Shareholder William G. Beatty for summary judgment on behalf of a health insurance company, finding that the pre-existing condition exclusion in the policy issued to the plaintiff applied to the plaintiff’s claim as a matter of law.
The court determined, beyond any genuine issue of material fact, that the plaintiff had exhibited signs and symptoms of her disorder prior to the effective date of her insurance coverage, even though her condition was not definitively diagnosed until after her coverage had commenced.
The judge found, as a matter of law, that all of the policy’s criteria for a pre-existing condition had been met, including that the plaintiff had exhibited signs and symptoms of her disorder prior to the commencement of her coverage such that: (1) the manifestation of plaintiff’s condition would have allowed a person learned in medicine to have diagnosed the plaintiff’s disorder prior to the effective date of her coverage; as well as (2) the plaintiff’s condition would have caused an ordinarily prudent person to seek diagnosis or treatment of the disorder.
No appeal of the summary judgment is expected.
