Chicago trial lawyers have launched a high-stakes federal insurance fight, accusing Travelers Property Casualty Company of America of abandoning its insured and opening the door to a nine-figure courtroom disaster.
On March 31, 2026, the Chicago firm Salvi, Schostok & Pritchard filed a bad-faith lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois seeking more than $2 billion from Travelers. The new case traces directly back to a Madison County jury’s $241 million wrongful-death verdict earlier this year for the family of Eric Johnson, a courier who died after transporting dry ice while hauling frozen strawberries for Prairie Farms Dairy and its PFD Supply unit.
According to LegalNewsLine, the Madison County jury returned the $241 million verdict on Feb. 27, 2026, after an eight-day trial. Jurors awarded $49.5 million in compensatory damages and $191.5 million in punitive damages in the wrongful-death suit first filed in 2017, which accused Prairie Farms and PFD Supply of failing to warn Johnson about ventilation requirements and the asphyxiation risk from sublimating dry ice.
The new federal complaint, filed on behalf of Paula Johnson, says Prairie Farms has assigned its claims against Travelers to her following the verdict. The suit alleges that Travelers repeatedly refused to settle the underlying wrongful-death case within policy limits, sidelined excess insurers and left the dairy co-op exposed to a potentially ruinous judgment, according to RiverBender.
Plaintiffs say Travelers “abandoned its insured” by refusing to tender available limits in the face of towering exposure. Salvi, Schostok & Pritchard partner Patrick A. Salvi II is quoted as saying the wrongful-death case “never would have gone to trial” but for what he called Travelers’ “reckless behavior,” while fellow attorney Lance D. Northcutt described the insurer’s conduct as “the most egregious example of bad faith.”
How a 2016 delivery turned deadly
Johnson’s fatal delivery traces back to Aug. 5, 2016, when the 64-year-old courier picked up four coolers of strawberries packed with dry ice at a PFD Supply facility in St. Charles. Roughly 90 minutes later, he was found unconscious in his vehicle and later died, according to local coverage by KFVS.
At trial, the family’s lawyers told jurors that no one instructed Johnson about the need for ventilation or safe transport practices for loads containing dry ice. Trial records also showed Prairie Farms had prior hazard-communication enforcement issues, as highlighted by ExpertInstitute.
Bad-faith theory and the legal playbook
The new lawsuit leans on Illinois remedies for policyholders who say insurers acted “vexatiously and unreasonably.” Plaintiffs seek statutory relief under Section 155 of the Illinois Insurance Code, which authorizes extra-contractual damages and attorney fees in certain bad-faith scenarios. The statute’s text and remedies are laid out on the ILGA site.
When courts size up Section 155 claims, they typically ask whether the insurer’s delay or refusal to pay stems from a genuine coverage dispute or from conduct that crosses the line into bad faith. Appellate decisions also drill into how assignments like Prairie Farms’ transfer to Paula Johnson are treated and how statutory penalties interact with policy limits, as discussed in case law collected on FindLaw.
Dry ice dangers in the spotlight
Dry ice is solid carbon dioxide that turns directly into CO2 gas as it warms. In a confined or poorly ventilated space, the gas can displace oxygen and trigger dizziness, loss of consciousness or death. Federal occupational health guidance from NIOSH warns of dangerous exposure levels and recommends ventilation and monitoring whenever dry ice is used or transported in enclosed areas.
According to trial coverage, lawyers for Johnson’s family hammered those risks in front of the jury, arguing that Prairie Farms and PFD Supply failed to provide adequate training, warnings or procedures for drivers hauling loads containing dry ice. Jurors cited those issues when awarding punitive damages aimed at punishing and deterring similar conduct.
What comes next for Travelers
The plaintiffs’ team says it plans to hold a press conference in Chicago on April 1, 2026, to walk through the new allegations and the potential fallout for the insurance industry. The bad-faith case is listed on the Southern District of Illinois docket as No. 3:26-cv-00384, according to RiverBender.
Travelers will have the usual procedural options: answer the complaint, move to dismiss or ask the court for other relief. If the case survives early challenges, it could head into a lengthy discovery slog over internal claim files and settlement strategy, with the potential to influence how insurers handle catastrophic exposure cases when policy limits and trial risks collide.
