GEICO Indemnity Company v. Simply Health Care, Inc.

Simply Health Care, Inc., was the assignee of the beneficiary of personal injury protection (“PIP”) benefits. Simply Health sued GEICO under the PIP policy and then filed a motion for summary judgment.

While the summary judgment motion was pending, GEICO sought to amend its answer to add res judicata and collateral estoppel affirmative defenses. The trial court denied the motion to amend and entered summary judgment against GEICO and also entered a final judgment.

The “refusal to allow amendment of a pleading constitutes an abuse of discretion unless allowing the amendment ‘would prejudice the opposing party, the privilege to amend has been abused,