Legal Question in Business Law in Maryland

Re: Antique Car - Destroyed in Storage by Fire

Check the storage contract. It probably disclaimed any liability and advised you to get insurance, in the absence of which the storage was at your own risk. If that's the case, you may want to think seriously about taking their offer, as a lawsuit will probably get you nowhere unless they were grossly negligent in causing the fire.

Re: Antique Car - Destroyed in Storage by Fire

If you can prove that the fire was his fault, you certainly should go after him. He has also committed fraud on you and your husband, by accepting storage fees after your car was destroyed, although it does sound if there was something there worth protecting, inasmuch as you are willing to restore it once again. He did not, however, give you the choice once the car was damaged. I think your attorney is pursuing the case properly.

Re: Antique Car - Destroyed in Storage by Fire

The original value of the car was $11K, and you have a $5K offer to settle. Thus you are left with a potential $6K deficiency (or more depending on restoration costs). Inasmuch as the vehicle is an antique, it may have a greater value but this would hinge upon it having been properly maintained. I recently went through a partial restoration of a vehicle that was sitting idle for several years and, as is common knowledge with car collectors, leaving a vehicle sit idle tends to lessen its value (i.e., sludge oil, faulty lines, rubber parts breakdown, etc.) Nonetheless, you have an expert appraisal and, depending on the reputation of the expert, this should serve as a good basis to estimate your loss. There are several factual inquiries related to the value of the vehicle and losses sustained upon it.

Moreover, a fraud was set upon you and you should recover the cost of the storage as well as any damage that was occasioned after the fire. A part of this damage may be the resective availability of restorative original parts that were on the market in 1997 as compared to June 2001 (i.e., when you received notice of the fire). This, as well as other matters noted above, may be complicated and costly to prove in court.

If the contract of storage had a typical loss damage waiver then you would have no case in court unless you can show that the fire was caused by more than ordinary negligence or that the storage facility did not otherwise act reasonably to curtail any further losses. From the sound of it, you appear to have one of these two since an offer has been made. However, inasmuch as an offer has been made, there may be another explanation and that is that the storage facility has already recovered a reasonable settlement under its insurance for the fire. If such is the case, some research may disclose this but the eventuality is that you will never fully know unless you file a claim in court and gain access to this information through the legal discovery process.

You may have a reasonable offer, then again you may not. If, as a matter of comfort, you would like another attorney to take a look at the matter, I am available at a reasonable fee. Otherwise, continue with your current attorney as it seems that he/she is addressing your case.

g. Joseph Holthaus III, Esq.

(410) 799-9002