Carwash Garagekeeper Claim Denied?

[Milkman1265]

Here's the scenario;

Carwash shop, they drive the car in and drive the car out to the hand drying station. The drying station is still on premise; its right outside the exit with vacuums and cleaning supplies. The attendant forgot to "park" and exited the vehicle. The car went down the ramp into the street and crashed into a school bus and another parked car.

Whose fault is this? Employee of Company had care custody and control of the car. Police report and the employee say it was the employee negligence.

Now when the claimant goes to file a claim with the car wash insurance carrier, they decline the claim stating they only have "garage" insurance.

Wouldnt garagekeeper cover this even if it is legal liability only (since 100% employee negligence) Claim adjuster say the car washer has no coverage for this type of accident.

Can it be possible that he only had GL? but they called it garage liability?

What is the plan of action here? Carrier already issued a formal claim denial letter.

attempt to recover from company owner?
attempt to recover from employee?
sue the company?
SOL?
recover from own's car insurance?

 

[VolAgent]

FYI.

Insurance merely indemnifies you against your liability. The business' liability is the same whether there is insurance to cover it or not. The insurance merely provides the money.

So, yes the business is liable. The employee was acting on behalf on his employer and while I suppose you could sue him, you'd have better luck getting money from the business.

I would find it hard to believe the owner of the car is liable. He was not in possession of his vehicle at the time of the accident, he had entrusted it to the car wash.

 

[xrac]

THis sounds like a situation that the owner should allow his insurance to fix the car and then let the insurance company figure it out.

 

[blue_wynd]

Time to tell the car wash company to get insurance that covers the car wash aspect of their business. I would get an estimate and have the business owner pay for it. If I was in his or her shoes, I would personally go through my own carrier and let them deal with it; reason being the insured still have the school bus and that parked car to worry about. They might decide to sue him or her too. With that possibility and the car wash carrier already denying coverage; I would get my own carrier involved and let them deal with it.

 

[best14rates]

That clearly should of been covered by the business policy not sure what kind of policy that he purchased but I insure several car wash's and all of the policies that I sold had that coverage I think If I were him I would be talking to my agent about what the heck they purchased

 

[MrGolf]

Garage insurance and Garage-keeper insurance are two very different things. Although they are often confused.


Bottom line of this above scenario sounds like the agent that insures the car wash is going to be filing an E&O claim pretty soon.

 

[Aram Fingal]

THis sounds like a situation that the owner should allow his insurance to fix the car and then let the insurance company figure it out.

I strongly second this. Don't try and handle this yourself. Let the claims experts and lawyers at your personal insurance company handle this for you. That's why you have them. Subrogation is a wonderful thing.

 

[nyc2phi]

Garage insurance and Garage-keeper insurance are two very different things. Although they are often confused.

Bottom line of this above scenario sounds like the agent that insures the car wash is going to be filing an E&O claim pretty soon.

This is most likely what happened as Mr. Golf mentioned. Our garage liability has a section to add garage keepers. The garage keepers has a coverage limit you can apply for physical damage to autos in your care. This existing policy sounds like it was lacking this coverage in their package.

 

[xrac]

I strongly second this. Don't try and handle this yourself. Let the claims experts and lawyers at your personal insurance company handle this for you. That's why you have them. Subrogation is a wonderful thing.

This will be such a convoluted mess that an individual will find it a very drawn out and expensive undertaking to try to collect. The insurance company has money, patience, lawyers, and familiarity in handling this type of thing.

 

[Milkman1265]

yeah he went through own insurance, lucky for full coverage. But they are trying to recover their deductible. which probably wont happen for a long time.

I just found it weird that they declined it, i wrote a few car washes under the same carrier and i was 100% sure they covered it through garage keeper.

They probably have the wrong coverage, opted out or agent sold the wrong out.