Robert Chemers and Dave Larson win a summary judgment and default declaratory judgment in federal court in Springfield, Illinois.

Robert Chemers and Dave Larson won a summary judgment and default declaratory judgment in federal court in Springfield, IL for an insurer client based on the insured providing notice of an accident 16 months after it occurred and notice of suit some 9 months after it was filed. The district judge held that the notice given was a breach of the notice condition and unreasonable and untimely as a matter of law. The Court dismissed as moot the counts seeking declaratory judgment against the insured based on the liquor liability exclusion in the CGL policy which applies if the insured is in the business of selling or serving alcoholic beverages, and this insured was the owner of the premises on which a bar was located. The insured was not named an additional insured on the bar’s liquor liability policy and the insured did not purchase his own liquor liability insurance. In Illinois, an owner of property on which a bar is located has the same Dram Shop Act liability as does the dram shop.