Dist. Ct. had jurisdiction to consider state-court declaratory judgment action alleging that defendant-insurance company had duty to defend plaintiff-insured in underlying action alleging that plaintiff breached contract to pay one of its truck drivers money to drive his truck, where said action was removed to Dist. Ct., even though plaintiff named truck driver as party in instant lawsuit who shared Illinois citizenship with plaintiff. Ct. dismissed truck driver from instant lawsuit so as to create complete diversity and to preserve its jurisdiction, since truck driver was dispensable party who had no legal interest in instant insurance dispute. Moreover, Dist. Ct. properly granted insurance company’s motion to dismiss instant action for failure to state cause of action, where: (1) relevant policy issued to plaintiff contained exclusion for defending claims based on contracts; and (2) underlying action was outside coverage of policy because underlying lawsuit rested fundamentally on contract claims based on lease agreement that truck driver had with insured.
Federal 7th Circuit Court
Civil Court
Insurance