Legal Question in Insurance Law in California

Auto Insurance Fraud by the Insurance comp

I live in California and I had bought a used 24Dod ram from a new car dealer. I purchased insurance for it and two weeks later it was stolen. I filed a claim and two months later I went to buy another used truck from the same dealer and the finance company wanted pay off on the other vehicle first before they would finance me on the new truck. Just before the payoff, my truck was recovered by the Orange police dept.I went down and the truck was in perfect cond. so I decided to keep the truck and return the other truck that i was going to buy. I called the ins. company and told them the situation and they told me that it was illegal to keep my truck in California for some reason. I told them not to pay off my truck that I had picked it up from the police dept and I was going to work something out w/ the finance comp to get my payments back on track and they just kept insisting that I couldnt keep the truck so I told her that I was in possesion of the vehicle and was keeping it period. They ended up paying off the truck and are now trying to sue me for $21000 and have put the title in their name so I cannot register the vehicle . Any info would be greatly appr. as to what I can do


Asked on 4/23/08, 1:15 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Edward Hoffman Law Offices of Edward A. Hoffman

Re: Auto Insurance Fraud by the Insurance comp

If the insurance company paid your claim for the theft (my guess is that it sent you the same $21,000 sum for which it is now suing you) then it became the legal owner of your truck. You can't have both the truck and the compensation you received for its theft.

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Answered on 4/23/08, 4:25 pm


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