Trupp v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance

Fain, Judge.

This appeal concerns a provision in a policy of uninsured/underinsured motorist insurance that provides that an arbitration award not exceeding the limits of the financial responsibility law—R.C. 3937.18(A)—is binding upon both parties, but an arbitration award in excess of those limits is appealable de novo by either party. We agree with plaintiff-appellant, Carl Trupp, that that provision is unconscionable because, in cases in which the insured’s realistic expectation is an award in excess of the financial responsibility law limits, but the insurer’s realistic expectation is an…