Quick Takes on Illinois Supreme Court Opinions Issued Thursday, September 24, 2026

Leading appellate attorneys review the eight Illinois Supreme Court opinions handed down Thursday, September 24. 

Geller v. Uber Technologies, Inc., 2026 IL 132066

By Michael T. Reagan, Law Offices of Michael T. Reagan

This opinion deals with the arbitrability of claims asserted against Uber Technologies, Inc. arising out of the death of Mark Geller, a passenger in an automobile being operated by an Uber driver which was involved in a single vehicle accident on an expressway. While the procedural aspects of the case, and the Supreme Court’s resolution of the issues, can be efficiently summarized in short here, the lengthy opinion written for the unanimous court by Justice Overstreet will often be consulted for its detailed analyses of threshold issues in arbitration matters.

Mark’s wife Gloria Sheridan Geller is the independent administrator of the estate of her deceased husband. She filed this action asserting claims for wrongful death and under the Survival Act.  Uber filed a motion to dismiss or compel arbitration, grounded upon terms-of-use agreements containing arbitration provisions which had been separately executed by both Mark and Gloria. The circuit court granted that motion, compelling arbitration of Mark’s estate’s survival claims based on Mark’s agreement, but denied the motion to the extent that it sought to compel arbitration of the wrongful death claims in reliance on Gloria’s agreement. The estate moved to voluntarily dismiss the survival action, which was granted.

Uber appealed the denial of its motion to compel arbitration of the wrongful death claims. The appellate court reversed the circuit court, stating that although the wrongful death claims belong to Gloria individually, the arbitrator, and not a court, must decide whether the wrongful death claims fall within the scope of Gloria’s own arbitration agreement. The estate’s petition for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court was allowed.

Gloria’s agreement was worded to involve claims arising from her own “access to or use of” Uber’s services in her individual capacity. The court noted that the wrongful death claims arise from injuries Mark sustained from his access to and use of Uber’s services. The court listed the several capacities in which Gloria was in the litigation: as an individual who had accepted terms governing her own transportation activities; as a beneficiary under the Wrongful Death Act; and as personal representative of the estate asserting wrongful death claims brought for the benefit of Mark’s next of kin. “A wrongful death action filed by a surviving spouse... is not an asset of the deceased’s estate that can be limited via the deceased’s arbitration agreement...”

The court decided that Gloria had not “clearly and unmistakably” agreed to delegate arbitrability of the estate’s wrongful death claims to an arbitrator and that the wrongful death claims did not fall within the scope of Gloria’s own agreement to arbitrate.

Much of the court’s analysis is taken up with the question of whether the parties had agreed to delegate the determination of arbitrability to the arbitrator. The court stated that the wrongful death claims arose from Mark’s death, which in turn resulted from his own use of Uber’s services, not Gloria’s. 

Because delegation of the determination of arbitrability is an exception to the general rule that arbitrability is a question for the courts, the party seeking delegation of that determination must demonstrate that intention of the parties by clear and unmistakable evidence.

This summary cannot do substantial justice to the many layers of inquiry involved in this opinion. In addition to the general law of contracts and arbitration, the court takes up in detail the Federal Arbitration Act, pertinent decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States, and state and federal intermediate reviewing court activity following SCOTUS guidance.

The wrongful death counts were remanded to the circuit court, to be resumed there, and the survival counts remain dismissed by the estate’s voluntary action.

Editor's Note: The remaining summaries will be added as they are received.