A woman has won $5.2m (£4.1m) from an insurance firm after claiming she contracted a sexually transmitted infection in a car it had a policy on.
The claimant, a woman from Missouri only being identified as MO, says she had sex with her partner in a car insured by the company Geico.
According to court documents, she claims this resulted in her catching HPV (human papillomavirus) because the man failed to tell her he had the infection.
HPV can lead to cervical cancer if left untreated and can also result in genital warts.
In February last year MO told Geico, a firm based in Maryland, she planned to sue them for $1m because the man’s policy with them should have covered for her “injuries and losses”.
Geico refused to pay out for the settlement, instead claiming her “injury” did not occur as a result of “normal use of the vehicle”.
An arbitrator later ruled she should be given $5.2m in damages.
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The woman then filed a motion to Jackson County Court seeking to claim her damages money.
On Thursday a three-judge panel of the Missouri Court of Appeals upheld her claim after various appeals by Geico.
But the firm says it is planning a federal lawsuit to argue the woman was not covered by her boyfriend’s insurance policy.
In a statement on Thursday Geico said the lawsuit would determine if “there is coverage in this matter”.
