She got an STD during car sex. Now Geico could pay her $5.2M

The Geico gecko has long touted the company’s claims of “great service and savings on car insurance.” But in the case of amissouri woman who said she caught a sexually transmitted disease after having sex in the car of a Geico member, the state’s appeals court ruled this week that the insurance company needed to do more — and now potentially owes her millions of dollars.

The Missouri Court of Appeals upheld a $5.2 million judgment Tuesday involving a Jackson County, Missouri, woman who said she unknowingly caught HPV, the human papillomavirus, during unprotected sex in the luxury sedan of a former male romantic partner in 2017. After the woman notified Geico that she was seeking monetary damages, an arbitrator with Jackson County Circuit Court ruled last year that the man was liable for not disclosing his infection, saying the sex in the car“directly caused, or directly contributed to cause” of the woman’s contraction of HPV.

Geico had argued the judgment did not fall in line with Missouri law, claiming to the court that the man’s policy covered injuries that only came “out of the ownership, maintenance or use of the ... auto.” The company also claimed the injuries to the woman, identified in court documents as M.O., “arose from an intervening cause — namely, her failure to prevent transmission of STDS by having unprotected sex.”

In an opinion published this week, a three-judge panel sided with the lower court, saying Geico did not have a strong case for appeal once a judgment was entered and the $5.2 million damages were determined.