GEICO Must Pay Woman Who Got HPV From Car Sex $5.2 Million

Looks like 15 minutes or more could give you $5.2 million from a car insurance company. Last October, I covered for Forbes how a woman had “demanded $1 million from GEICO” after getting hot and heavy in a Hyundai had reportedly left her with HPV. In this case, HPV stood for human papilloma virus and not Hyundai-produced virus, because she allegedly got this sexually transmitted infection (STI) from a human partner in the car and not from the car itself. Cars typically don’t give you STIs no matter what you may tell your significant other. Nevertheless, the Jackson County Circuit Court had awarded this woman, a resident of Jackson County, Missouri, a $5.2 million settlement that GEICO, the car insurance company, is supposed to pay. And recently the Missouri Court of Appeals has upheld this settlement ruling.

This wasn’t your typical boy meets girl meets car meets HPV story. As detailed in my previous article and court documents from the district of Kansas, in November 2017, the woman, referred to in court documents as M.O., got together for presumably more than 15 minutes with M.B., who owned a 2014 Hyundai Genesis. That car served as the Genesis to what happened next. Over the ensuing several weeks, they proceeded to have sex on multiple occasions in the car. The sex included having unprotected sex, meaning without barrier protections such as condoms and not without car insurance. M.B. did have two GEICO insurance policies: a Kansas Family Automobile Insurance Policy listing the Hyundai Genesis and an umbrella policy. As I wrote previously, the umbrella policy was personal liability insurance that was supposed to cover any claims beyond those covered by his auto insurance and not insurance specifically for lost umbrellas.

How did this become a caught an STI in a Hyundai situation? Well, apparently, M.B. had already been diagnosed with with HPV-positive throat cancer before doing the uh oh with M.O. She alleged that M.B. had not revealed his diagnosis, which allowed them to proceed with the unprotected sex. If you are wondering what the mouth or throat has to do with sex, you may need to re-take sex ed. About a year after those rolls in the hey look out for that gear shifter, M.O. was diagnosed with anogenital HPV during a routine gynecology exam in November 2018, according to court documents.

Anogenital is a a combination of the words anus and genital, sort of like how athleisure is the combination of athletic and leisure. HPV can infect cells that line the surface of your mouth, throat, vulva, vagina, cervix, anus, or penis. What do all of these body parts have in common besides bad things to get caught in a closing door? They all can be heavily involved in different types of sex. And such sexual contact in turn can pass along the virus. Such an infection can not only produce lesions like warts but also may lead to malignant lesions such as cervical cancer or anal cancer in those areas.

So what was M.O.’s M.O. in getting reparations for that diagnosis? Despite no geckos seemingly involved, on February 25, 2021, M.O. sent GEICO a letter that stated: “Here’s the Petition that will be filed against your insured, [M.B.]. Before doing so, we have been authorized to make one final attempt to resolve [M.O.’s] claims against your insured for the applicable limits of $1m. Let me know.” Then later in 2021 with the help of an arbitrator, M.O. and M.B. reached an agreement that M.O. would be awarded $5.2 million with one big catch: GEICO would be liable for most of the amount rather than M.B. The Jackson County Circuit Court subsequently confirmed this arbitration award, and GEICO appealed. Eventually, the Missouri Court of Appeals via a three-judge panel confirmed the circuit court’s settlement decision. Not exactly so easy that a caveman could do it. Nonetheless, GEICO now appears to be on the hook for $5.2 million.

While having sex in a car may put you at greater risk for getting a steering wheel imprint on your bottom, it alone shouldn’t put you at higher risk for catching HPV. Your risk of catching HPV really depends on whether your partner is carrying the virus and what you do to protect yourself regardless of whether you’re in a car, in a bed, or on a raft, in a house, or with a mouse. One way to prevent HPV infection is to always know your partner’s STI history. This along with knowing your partner’s name before sex should be of utmost importance. After all, during sex, you don’t want to shout, “oh, whatever your name is” or put yourself at unnecessary risk for getting the STI.

A second way is to always use barrier protection like condoms whenever there is any doubt about your partner’s HPV status. If getting you or your partner to wear a condom seems harder than getting a cat to wear a tuxedo, you may want to postpone the sex.

The third thing that you can do is get yourself vaccinated against HPV. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) does recommend getting vaccinated against HPV when by the time you are 12 years old. If you are already in your late teens or early 20’s, don’t fret. Life hasn’t passed you by yet. The CDC still recommends that you get vaccinated as long as you are 26 years and younger. Finally, be judicious about whom you have sex with, as you don’t want to play HPV roulette.

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