Legal Question in Insurance Law in California

auto insurance refusing to pay for repairs

My mother was recently involved in a

no-fault auto accident. The other

driver, who

has Mercury auto insurance,

accepted full responsibility for the

accident. My mother

also has Mercury. She has a 1993

Mazda Protege, which has a low blue-

book value,

which does not reflect the true value

of a car whose engine runs as great

as her car's, or

the money she has invested into

keeping it that way. The repair facility

to which

Mercury sent her gave an over-

inflated estimate, which Mercury

used to declare the

car a total loss and to refuse to repair

the car, and instead chose to pay the

blue

book value of the car. She got an

estimate from another repair shop,

and their

estimate was almost half as much.

She went ahead and repaired the car

at her own

expense, since the the engine was

untouched by the accident. Indeed,

the

damage was to one side of a car that

was in perfect shape. Now, Mercury

does not

even want to reimburse her for the

blue book value. In the state of CA,

does she

have the right to insist that Mercury

repair her car, as the other driver is

100% at

fault?


Asked on 2/03/08, 8:37 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Kurt Boyd LAW OFFICES OF KURT BOYD

Re: auto insurance refusing to pay for repairs

No. Insurers have the obligation to pay either repair cost or diminution in value, whichever is less. That said, she may have both a complaint with the Department of Insurance and a cause of action for contract breach against the insurer. She can make the former on her own. She should consult an attorney on the later

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Answered on 2/21/08, 10:25 pm


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