Legal Question in Personal Injury in Pennsylvania
Can I sue to recover losses due to negligent accident?
A car was driving on our street (25mph borough street) and lost control on ''black ice''. The young driver, jumped the curve, careened downhill through our yard, crashed into my son's car, which caused it to spin around 180 degrees, her car then bounced off and proceeded to smash into my Windstar pushing it through my closed garage door. Although she was clearly at fault, and her insurance company is willing to pay the claims, the problem I have is the amount they are offering for my son's 1992 Cutlass Ciera Oldsmobile. He inherited it from my wife's late uncle who drove it very seldom and very slow. It had only 78000 miles and as the body shop owner said, it was in mint condition. They offered me $2,017 for it. I really don't care what the blue book value is, I want my son to have a comparable car to drive. I researched several dozen similar cars on the Web and their offer would not allow me to purchase anything near the same value. Add to that the fact that this young driver was obviously speeding. There weren't even any braking skid marks on my lawn, just slight tire impressions. And the fact that she did the extensive damage she did. Can I recover my loss from her? If so how?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Can I sue to recover losses due to negligent accident?
The loss suffered by your son is the value of the car, not the amount you would perceive as what you would need to replace it. That's what all insurance policies say. So, whatever the blue book value is is what they would offer you.
In a court case, it would be assumed that you have already been compensated to that value, so you wouldn't have much chance recovering more.
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