Auto Insurance Claims: Damage to a car when it was in transit, Damage to a car when it was in transit

Question
Hello,

My vehicle was sent from Virginia to Wisconsin a few weeks ago through a moving company, which subsequently found a subcontractor to ship my car. The policy of the moving company states that they are liable for damages during transport, but notes that the moving company or its agents would not be responsible for acts of god such as fire, flooding, and hail, or objects flying from the road or sky during transport.

On the pick-up date, the driver inspected the car and marked several scratches that had already existed. My brother agreed the mentioned scratches and signed the bill of lading. About 10 days later, the moving truck arrived Wisconsin. During the inspection at delivery, I found that the windshield was cracked (it was probably hit by a rock because there was a spider-web). I told the driver about that, and the driver looked at the bill of lading and agreed that the windshield was not cracked when it was picked up. Then the driver wrote "window cracked" on the bill of lading and signed it. He then instructed me to call his boss, who would help me with the claim.

On the following day, I called the subcontractor and told him that the crack was not on the bill of lading at pick-up and his driver acknowledged the windshield was cracked at delivery. Therefore, it must be somehow damaged when my car was in transit. He said the driver had told him that, but he denied it was his fault, claiming that the windshield was not possible to be cracked during transport. The subcontractor asked me to go through my own insurance company. I did not do that, but I contacted the moving company, which provided me the information of the carrier's insurance company. His insurance company listened to my situation and asked me to provide estimates to fix the windshield so that he could forward it to the carrier. Then, I provided the quotes promptly. However, the insurance company later said he could not do anything to make the carrier pay me because the cost of fixing the windshield was only a few hundreds, which was less than the $1000 deductible under their policy. I tried to contact the carrier again to see how things went, but the carrier was not responsive to my calls. I then contacted the moving company, which said they could not help. I also called the carrier’s insurance company, which asked me to go through my own insurance company. However, I do not really want to go to my insurance company because I want to keep my record intact and thus this not-my-fault event will not cause a higher premium in the future.

Given this situation, I believe I have a couple of options:
1. Submit an insurance claim, and pay my $500 deductible. Wait and see if my insurance company can go after the carrier.
2. Take the moving company, the carrier, and the carrier’s insurance company to a small claims court. My worry is the legal complication because this transaction involved two states.

Should I contact my insurance company and let them take legal actions on behalf of me? Which way do you recommend? Do you have any other suggestions?

Thank you very much!


Answer
Hello Roger,

I am sorry to hear about your bad situation. There are some issues here (as you noted).

You could go to small claims court and chances are that you could sue in either state. The problem will be serving the notice on that company (their principle place of business). Again, this is up to you. For more information about small claims court, please see:

http://www.auto-insurance-claim-advice.com/small-claims-court.html

Your record could be affected by the claim. The insurance company will try to collect against the other insurance company or the transport, but they might be unable to do (there is no coverage, the other insurance company will not pay because there is a high deductible, etc). If they cannot recover the full amount, then you could end up with a negative on your insurance (affecting your rates).

However... you do pay insurance for a reason. Maybe this is the time to have them protect you against this type of situation.

The decision is up to you.

I hope this helps

Good Luck
Anne
http://www.quirogalawoffice.com/