Lawsuit

S

spinneria

New member
I have a 2 year old busn in a small town, doing well. A couple of months ago a driver (who usually worked as a cook) ran a stop sign and T boned another motorist. Of course, he had a cartop on, great! He told his ins company he was delivering pizzas and of course he didn’t have a commerical policy. Sooo, I get a call this morning from his ins company informing me that they have denied the claim and that the other motorist’s is bring a suit against me for $150,000 !
Oh, yeah! I’m uninsured. Now what? Sell, close or ride it out?
 
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sell up, pay your $150k and try something else! Sorry no sympathy here at all!

If you operated a business without appropriate property insurance and the shop burnt down you’d go bust. You’ve operated a delivery business without any motor insurance and got caught! Not much choice really unless you have $150k lying around!

oh yeah I love the bit about the car topper, did you require your drivers to take off the car toppers before they have an accident by any chance? :roll:
 
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Thanks for your input, but not lookin for sympathy. I was jus wondering how others would handle it. And about the cartop, I have drivers who often “forget”, so I jus found it amusing.
 
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spinneria:
I have a 2 year old busn in a small town, doing well. A couple of months ago a driver (who usually worked as a cook) ran a stop sign and T boned another motorist. Of course, he had a cartop on, great! He told his ins company he was delivering pizzas and of course he didn’t have a commerical policy. Sooo, I get a call this morning from his ins company informing me that they have denied the claim and that the other motorist’s is bring a suit against me for $150,000 !
Oh, yeah! I’m uninsured. Now what? Sell, close or ride it out?
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Get good legal advice from a lawyer who is versed in this type of action.

A few points to look at.

What type of business structure do you have (LLC, Proprietorship, ???)? This can be important to keep you from personally being wiped out along with the business.

What are your chances of continuing the business successfully if you have to pay out that kind of money?

If you were to sell would the proceeds pay off the suit?

Again GET A GOOD LAWYER
 
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Even if the driver was covered, you could have been sued anyway.
 
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spinneria:
I have a 2 year old busn in a small town, doing well. A couple of months ago a driver (who usually worked as a cook) ran a stop sign and T boned another motorist. Of course, he had a cartop on, great! He told his ins company he was delivering pizzas and of course he didn’t have a commerical policy. Sooo, I get a call this morning from his ins company informing me that they have denied the claim and that the other motorist’s is bring a suit against me for $150,000 !
Oh, yeah! I’m uninsured. Now what? Sell, close or ride it out?
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His insurance company called you? For what reason? The status of the claim from their point of view is between the driver and the other party - why they would be talking to you about it at all doesn’t make much sense to me.

I also don’t understand why his insurance company would be the bearer of the lawsuit news. How would they know what the other person is doing? The drivers insurance company are not the people to rely on for information pertaining to something they are not involved in.

Before deciding to close, sell, etc., I’d first wait and see what the victim actually does. Have they been in contact with you? Have you heard from their lawyer or been served?

When you say you are “uninsured”, what do you mean? No insurance at all, or just no non-owned liability?
 
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Before you panic, realize that lawsuits can take a long time to get to trial. I would assume that a two year old business is probably not worth 150k unless the real estate is owned. You can’t really sell the business without disclosing the accident and the pending litigation. Until you have been served with the lawsuit, I would not do anything. There is no point spending money on lawyers for a lawsuit that may never come. If you are sued get legal representation. prior to a suit being filed, the injured partys attorney may send you an inquiry asking if you have insurance and if so who it is with. This may dictate whether or not they proceed with a lawsuit. They don’t want to spend time and money chasing a lawsuit that may yield an uncollectable judgement. If they do sue you, you may be able to reach a settlement during mediation. By all means get non owned auto insurance so you don’t have another incident to worry about in the future. In the mean time, don’t get too worried about something that may never come about.
 
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“I was just wondering how others would handle it”

We buy the insurance that we need to protect ourselves from this. Sorry, no sympathy here either. Pay up or close up. This is the kind of thing that gives the industry a bad name and raises the rates for those of us that meet our responsibilities.
 
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