Slavojka Pistalo v. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and The Estate of Iris M. Wilks

OPINION

CRONE, Judge.

Case Summary

In 2005, Slavojka Pístalo filed a personal injury action against Iris Wilks for injuries stemming from a 2003 vehicle collision. Wilks was insured by Progressive Casualty Insurance Company (“Progressive”), and Pistalo and Progressive began settlement negotiations. Unbeknownst to Pista-lo, Wilks had died in the fall of 2008, and no estate had ever been opened. When Pistalo learned about Wilks’s death two years later, her counsel opened an estate in Wilks’s name for purposes of the personal injury action. Prior to trial, Pistalo offered to settle for policy…