Cow accident and Insurance Claim

[lakajohn]

What is the name of your state? Louisiana is where I reside , Lake Charles , LA. 70605 is the community where the cow accident occurred . I loaned a 1994 GMC P/U truck to an 18 year old to go out with his girlfriend and 1 other teen . He was driving at 11 p. m. to his dates home in the country on a dark , unlite road and struck a dark colored cow standing in the road . The cow did not survive and my truck was destroyed and immobile . The teens were OK and were driven home after the police wrote the report and called out a wrecker to remove the damaged truck . The wrecker service was picked by the Calcausieu Parish Sherrifs office and my vehicle was towed to the wrecking yard . The deputy took five or six days to complete the accident report , while I attempted to find the owner of the cow that caused the accident . This took considerable time to find the owner and when found he would not return my phone calls . I finally was able to speak to him and recieve the name of his insurance agent , but 2 months had passed since the accident . He had never reported this occurence to his insurer and the insurance company has written a letter to me stating that the case is being handled under a Reservation of Rights regarding duties of a policyholder to comply once an incident occurs . They go on to say I need to mitigate my damages concerning wrecker fees and storage fees . The letter states there will be no consideration of storage charges since I failed to mitigate my damages . Correct me if I'm wrong , but if the cow was not in the road there would not have been any damages or storage and wrecker fees . If the client of the insurer would have notified his insurance company right away and contacted me about the insureds claim , there would have been a lot less time that passed and a lot less wrecker and storage fees . I did not have a choice with the wrecker company and i did not authorize any storage fees , this was handled by the officer at the accident . I would have had to pay for 2 wrecker fees and storage fees some place else to mitigate my damages . Please help me with a decision on this matter . I am considering small claims court to litigate this matter . Thankyou for any suggestions , Keith [/i][/i][/b]

[moburkes]

Originally Posted by lakajohn

What is the name of your state? Louisiana is where I reside , Lake Charles , LA. 70605 is the community where the cow accident occurred . I loaned a 1994 GMC P/U truck to an 18 year old to go out with his girlfriend and 1 other teen . He was driving at 11 p. m. to his dates home in the country on a dark , unlite road and struck a dark colored cow standing in the road . The cow did not survive and my truck was destroyed and immobile . The teens were OK and were driven home after the police wrote the report and called out a wrecker to remove the damaged truck . The wrecker service was picked by the Calcausieu Parish Sherrifs office and my vehicle was towed to the wrecking yard . The deputy took five or six days to complete the accident report , while I attempted to find the owner of the cow that caused the accident . This took considerable time to find the owner and when found he would not return my phone calls . I finally was able to speak to him and recieve the name of his insurance agent , but 2 months had passed since the accident . He had never reported this occurence to his insurer and the insurance company has written a letter to me stating that the case is being handled under a Reservation of Rights regarding duties of a policyholder to comply once an incident occurs . They go on to say I need to mitigate my damages concerning wrecker fees and storage fees . The letter states there will be no consideration of storage charges since I failed to mitigate my damages . Correct me if I'm wrong , but if the cow was not in the road there would not have been any damages or storage and wrecker fees . If the client of the insurer would have notified his insurance company right away and contacted me about the insureds claim , there would have been a lot less time that passed and a lot less wrecker and storage fees . I did not have a choice with the wrecker company and i did not authorize any storage fees , this was handled by the officer at the accident . I would have had to pay for 2 wrecker fees and storage fees some place else to mitigate my damages . Please help me with a decision on this matter . I am considering small claims court to litigate this matter . Thankyou for any suggestions , Keith [/i][/i][/b]

You ARE required to mitigate your damages. Do you have comprehesnice coverage on your insurance policy? Regardless of the CAUSE of the accident, you ARE required to mitigate your damages.

Originally Posted by lakajohn

What is the name of your state? Louisiana is where I reside , Lake Charles , LA. 70605 is the community where the cow accident occurred . I loaned a 1994 GMC P/U truck to an 18 year old to go out with his girlfriend and 1 other teen . He was driving at 11 p. m. to his dates home in the country on a dark , unlite road and struck a dark colored cow standing in the road . The cow did not survive and my truck was destroyed and immobile . The teens were OK and were driven home after the police wrote the report and called out a wrecker to remove the damaged truck . The wrecker service was picked by the Calcausieu Parish Sherrifs office and my vehicle was towed to the wrecking yard . The deputy took five or six days to complete the accident report , while I attempted to find the owner of the cow that caused the accident . This took considerable time to find the owner and when found he would not return my phone calls . I finally was able to speak to him and recieve the name of his insurance agent , but 2 months had passed since the accident . He had never reported this occurence to his insurer and the insurance company has written a letter to me stating that the case is being handled under a Reservation of Rights regarding duties of a policyholder to comply once an incident occurs . They go on to say I need to mitigate my damages concerning wrecker fees and storage fees . The letter states there will be no consideration of storage charges since I failed to mitigate my damages . Correct me if I'm wrong , but if the cow was not in the road there would not have been any damages or storage and wrecker fees . If the client of the insurer would have notified his insurance company right away and contacted me about the insureds claim , there would have been a lot less time that passed and a lot less wrecker and storage fees . I did not have a choice with the wrecker company and i did not authorize any storage fees , this was handled by the officer at the accident . I would have had to pay for 2 wrecker fees and storage fees some place else to mitigate my damages . Please help me with a decision on this matter . I am considering small claims court to litigate this matter . Thankyou for any suggestions , Keith [/i][/i][/b]

YOU should have notified YOUR insurance company IMMEDIATELY. If you had done so...YOUR insurance company would have handled everything on your behalf. Nice, short, sweet, and simple.

Added: I wonder if cows can/should have micro-chips implanted in order to find their owner's for situations just like this.

[ecmst12]

There's certainly no reason you had to let your car sit in the tow lot accumulating fees for TWO MONTHS! That's what they mean by "not mitigating damages".