Forums

However I feel that the prankster in this case will still be subject to subrogation.

When I was a trainee auto adjuster my company had a total oss on a convertable with the top down. It seems the husband suspected a visitor may come to his house in the morning after he left for work. He drove his cement truck by the house, saw the parked convertable at the curb, swung out the chute and filled the vehicle up. The owner ran out when he heard the tires explode. The cement carrier said "sue the driver of our truck, he's fired"

 

When I was in the oil patch an EXon engineer accepted the tool pushers mini-horse as a gift. He took out the back seats and put the horse in the back to take home. Seems the horse kicked out all the seats and glass in the company car. He was a good engineer and got a new and better company car, and put in the think outside the box pool.

I handled a claim back in the early 80's in OK where a rancher had his pickup in a field with a bunch of horses, and for some reason a couple of them decided to try to "eat" the outside of the truck. They literally destroyed the faint on 4-5 body panels, and dented the panels as well. No clue as to why they did it but the rancher thought it had something to do with the color of the truck.
I also turned in a claim of my own on Christmas 2003 when one of my labrador retrievers ate both of my hearing aids that I had left on the coffee table on our 5th wheel trailer over night by mistake. Woke up the next morning to find little chunks and the batteries on the floor next to the table, and my policy carried full comp coverage with a rider for contents. Claim rep said it was the strangest claim they ever had.

Posted By sbeau4014 on 29 Mar 2010 10:08 PM
  They literally destroyed the faint on 4-5 body panels, and dented the panels as well. No clue as to why they did it but the rancher thought it had something to do with the color of the truck.

I have handled a couple of these, and had my own Honda Accord used in a longhorn lickfest. Usually the vehicle has been parked under a sappy tree and turns into a giant popcycle.I have also seen horses eat all the black plastic off a pickup.

 

JWG

Posted By claims_ray on 29 Mar 2010 05:26 PM
However I feel that the prankster in this case will still be subject to subrogation.

Just invite the perp to your next barbque.

 

JWG

This was in the Texarkana paper within the last couple of weeks


Policy places insurance company in bull’s eye

Ethel Channon GAZETTE COLUMNIST



In the real worlds of insurance company finance and public relations—if not in the intangible arena of earning and/ or losing good will—$20,000 is chicken feed.
So it’s hard to fathom why a company that insures a Pike County, Ark., couple whose livestock vandalized their house is cleaving so tightly to its policy provisions.
Yes, cows are domesticated animals, and yes, the policy states the company will not pay for damage done to property by domesticated animals.
But I am pretty sure the most creative of underwriters never could have imagined a couple of cows breaking down the front door of a house while the humans were gone, ingesting dog food, then trampling the furniture and otherwise creating a mess. Make that multiple piles of mess—enough to require a wheelbarrow for cleanup.
It’s not as if the homeowners flung open the doors and called the cows home.
By any measure this was an extraordinary event that caused damages estimated at a minimum of $20,000.
The insurance company has told the homeowners it will not pay, citing policy provisions. The company may prevail when or if the homeowners complain to Arkansas officials who regulate insurance companies and when or if the homeowners take the company to court.
The legal fees alone in defending its action before regulatory officials or a jury likely will be higher than any payout for damages .
The company may not have to pay for the homeowners’ loss, but it will lose a lot more than these homeowners or their future business.
The “Cows Gone Wild” story has gone national. One cable television network, DIY, will feature the destruction on its “Disaster House” series, including information about the insurance company refusing to pay the claim. This is not the kind of publicity corporate marketing departments typically seek.
Moreover, how many of the company’s policyholders will examine their documents and question whether they could find themselves at a disadvantage in some bizarre circumstance? Will rural policyholders wonder whether they should change companies?
Whether or not the language of this policy is consistent with others in the industry, the others will not be called out by name. The insurer in the cow case is smack in the middle of the bull’s eye of a big target for any case in which regular Davids come up against a corporate Goliath.
Loss of good will and doubts about good faith likely will cost the company many times over what it would have paid for covering this property loss.

Tim down in IKE country we are living with the possibility of 10,000 lawsuit,s from hurricane IKE losses that HAVE been paid: THAT did not go away. This may be 5% of all the claims filed. Thats a very high amount. Most are filed in 4 counties.If it takes a week to try each case thats about 48 years in each county if all were  equal.

Lifted shingles and debris under shingles is the "BIG" dwelling componant that got this huge monster going. I think the days of 6 closed per day may be coming to a end.Agreed losses will have to come back to stop this trend.

I thought the pig would be excluded as domestic animals just like the cows in Tim JOhnson's March 30, 2010 post.

Pike County
State not moo-ved by plea
State department rejects damage claim to house created by trio of cows
By Jim Williamson Texarkana Gazette



If the three cows that trashed a house in Pike County, Ark., had been owned by someone else, the insurance policy might have paid to repair the house.

But since the cows were owned by the homeowner, the insurance company could reject the claim, says the Arkansas Department of Insurance.

Latisha Francis was notified by telephone Wednesday the Arkansas Department of Insurance agreed with Farm Bureau stating the insurance company was not required to pay the repair costs for damages inside her house created by three cows.

The damages have been estimated at $20,000 to $25,000, Francis said.

The cows broke into the house Feb. 22.

It took law enforcement officials, family members and volunteers to pull, push, tug and drag the three cows out of the house.

“It’s non-coverage for domesticated animals and cows are considered domesticated animals,” said Alice Jones, communication director for the Arkansas Insurance Department.

“It’s typical language. If someone else had cattle which caused the damage, they would have had to pay for the damages,” Jones said. “You’re responsible But it would have applied only if the cattle owner had insurance. Jones suggested “taking stock” of homeowners insurance and review it with the insurance company. Information is offered on the state Website about home inventory and documenting through photographs. The Website is www.insurance. arkansas.gov. “It’s a terrible situation. The exclusion is in everyone’s insurance policy,” Jones said. Farm Bureau declined to comment on claims, sayingit’sprivilegedinformation,GreggPatterson, a spokesman for the insurance company in Little Rock said Thursday afternoon. Francis has an option of filing a lawsuit but has no intentions of going to court. “I can’t see taking it to court. It would cost more money with lawyer fees,” Francis said. “The insurance commission has been very nice. They did their job and investigated it,” she said. Francis was frustrated. “I was honest and told the truth. I could have told them it was someone else’s cows and they would have paid. I didn’t do that and was honest with them. I guess honesty doesn’t pay anymore,” Francis said. She is uncertain how she will pay for the repairs. “I don’t know. I’m lost. I guess we will start repairing it ourselves or try to get some kind of help with the repairs,” Francis said. She has cleaned the initial damage created by the cows, but the floors are starting to buckle and various furniture needs replacing. She has thought about entering the video in the America’s Funniest Home Videos television show, hoping to win prize money. The staff of H&R Block, which helps her prepare her income taxes, will help her with potential tax deductions for next year. None of the area schools have high school construction classes that might have been able to help her with the repairs. The plight of the damage has been noticed by the television show “Disaster House” on the DIY Network. DIY is the abbreviation for do-it-yourself. The television show will only offer suggestions for Francis to make the repairs. “The show mimics catastrophes so viewers can discover what it takes to repair some of the biggest mishaps homeowners face,” Chad Swift, associate producer, said. The cow-damaged house fits the storyline of the show, Swift said. “It was really a bizarre story and the home was really damaged,” he said. “We will bring some things to light, such as checking your homeowners insurance.” The crew will use some of the photos and video from the Pike County Sheriff’s Department to give a visual image of the house trashed by cows. The cows either kicked or head-butted the door open and broke part of the door frame to enter the house. Once inside, they apparently were attracted to a 50-pound bag of dry dog food. Based on evidence found inside the house, hoofs tend to slip around a lot on hardwood flooring. Add excrement from nervous cows and the flooring can become relatively slick. When the cows attempted to get back up, they would slip and fall, crushing more furniture. It was the 1,400-pound cow in the bedroom that was the challenge. Officers, friends and family members used their hands to pull the cow out of the bedroom. The rescuers would pull the cow a foot, then yank on the hoof and leg to move it. During the rescue task, the crew of six had to stop to rest as well as stop to let the cow go to the bathroom. Swift said the show about the bovine burglars is expected to be broadcast in August. “Disaster House” is produced by High Noon Entertainment in Denver, and the company’s staff learned about the cow and house trashing from news reports.

If the pig or animal (non Human), yours or not, eats your car yes. If your pig eats your house no.

This is yellow dog journalism. Only liability adjusters could figure out this article. If it was the neighbor's cows and they did this damage that might trigger a liability claim against his policy, not hers. She is stating that if it was the neighbor's cows it would trigger her H/O coverage. Not!