Shipping Damage - Need Advice - Help Please

[mb]

Ok, so I know this topic has been done to death, but it has finally happened to me and I don't know where else to turn or who else to ask. My pride and joy has been damaged, severely by a shipping company. It's a complicated situation, but here's the info. I just recently sold the best car I owned to a gentle man oversea's. It needed to be shipped from the east coast to the west coast in order to be put on a boat to go overseas's. He was having some difficulties arranging the cross country transport, although he has the ocean shipping part arranged. Being the nice guy I am I tried to help in order to make this go smoothly. I called a shipping broker that I had used before and trusted, and they arranged the cross country shipping. I meet the truck, driver, watched it get loaded ect, did what I could to ensure it was looked after. Well, the car has made it to the west coast, but was severely damaged along the way, apparently by the truck driver. This is just in the " early " stages " of being sorted out. I know I have read enough other threads on here to know that allot of people on this site have had thier cars damaged before as well. I was hoping someone could offer me a few tips based on their experiences on how I am going to get a fair and resonable settlement out of the shipping company. The one major problem I see is that the car is now on the west coast, basically at the docks waiting to be shipping out of country and oversea's. Both myself and the purchaser feel like we are a million miles away from the car, and have to rely on pictures and other people's descriptions, help, ect.
Has anyone experienced anything like this, or have any tips and what I should be saying or doing to get the insurance company to repair, or give us a check to pay for the repairs to the car once it has arrived at it's final desination ?
Thanks

[Otto Skorzeny]

First of all do you have your own insurance on the car? If so call them and let them beat it out of the shipping company.

If you don't have insurance and you feel the shipper's offer is not reasonable, you are going to have to sue them. You will first have to obtain an accurate appraisal of the damage.

Start looking for private adjusters out there that specialize in antique cars in order to obtain a true estimate of the damage.

If the shipper starts giving you grief, get the car out of their hands immediately. You might have to fly out there and do it yourself if don't have a trusted agent to act on your behalf.

[Classic]

Suggest you contact the local CLC regional director.  He and his region members usually know reputable attorneys, adjusters, repair shops, etc., in the area that can be your eyes, ears and advocates.  Keep us posted.

[Mike Josephic CLC #3877]

Here's where we get into the sticky legal details of shipping.

A few items to consider:

1)  What where the terms on the bill of sale?  Did you sell the car "FOB shipping point"
(your address or storage place) or "FOB destination" (the buyer's address)

2)  If the sale was FOB shipping point, then the claim for damage must be filed by the
BUYER against the shipping company.  Your insurance will not cover this since legally you
were no longer the owner once it left your storage address and was placed on the truck.

3)  If you sold it FOB destination (also called "delivered") then YOU are responsible for
the vehicle until it reaches the buyer's address and also for the in-transit damage. Your
insurance (hopefully it's insured) should cover it.  However, damage out of the continental
U.S. would likely not be covered (check your policy).

4)  What were the terms on the agreement from the transit company you used?
This is another possible way to cover the loss -- sometimes a reputable car carrier will
include insurance up to a certain amount for damage in transit as part of the deal.


Just my two cents.....................

Mike

[mb]

Thanks. Here's a responce and some more info to the posts so far.
Unfortunately there is no insurance on the car. I canceled mine, beleiving it was sold and gone, and the new owner has not insured it yet either. The car is in Carson, CA, which I would describe as a the greater Los Angeles area. Can anyone please tell me who I could contact to have a adjuster go look at the car. ? Not being from the area I have no idea who to contact, but I would like to have a 3rd party inspect the car, and not just rely on the " thier" adjusters ect. Any help would be great,
Thanks Again

[Otto Skorzeny]

Just curious: Was the transaction between you and the buyer complete before the damage occurred? Who legally owns the car?

[mb]

The transaction was done and completed, the purchaser owns the car

[Otto Skorzeny]

That's good for you. I'm amazed the buyer didn't have insurance.

What kind of car is it?

[mb]

55 Buick Super Riviera

I know it's not a caddy, but it was a nice car, and I do have a 56 / 57 / 58 / 59 cad

[76eldo]

I am not a lawyer, but once the money changed hands and I assume a title or bill of sale, I think your insurance would have been useless anyway.

Interstate transport of automobiles comes under the rules and regs of a federal agency, and the trucker must have insurance.  That is who is responsible.  It's a terrible situation, but I think it's between the new owner of the car and the transporter.

I can certainly understand wanting to be as helpful to the buyer as possible, but i don't think that you can really do anything because you were not the owner of the car at that time.

Last year I sold a car to a collector in Sweden.  I live in the Phila, Pa. area, and took responsibility of getting the car to the port in Newark, NJ.  The car went into a container, and even though it could have been driven, I paid for a flatbed tow instead, and followed in my car.  Luckily nothing bad happened, but it's always a risk, and some of these car haulers treat precious collectible cars like NY City taxicabs.

Hopefully they are insured and will cooperate to make things right.

Brian

[mb]

I may not be finacially responsible, but I feel horrible. I tried my best to make it a smooth transaction

[Chris Conklin]

I may not be finacially responsible, but I feel horrible. I tried my best to make it a smooth transaction

And you succeeded. Once the car left you the transaction was complete. Minor consolation, I know. And sad, a great model Buick. It is repairable I take it? Don't beat yourself up too much about it.

[mb]

Yes, it mainly just needs to be re-painted, maybee some minor body work. Scratches, rub marks type of damage, but allot of them, and deep

[XGLEGAL]

MB:  Any idea on where and how the damage to the vehicle took place?  What is the extent of the damage??  You need to figure that out before proceeding further, as the reality is that the value ($$$) of the damage will determine how you will need/want to proceed, if at all.
 Some of the posts mention that "legally" it may be the buyer's problem and not yours, but I sense that you want to do the right thing and I share that viewpoint.  As for who should bear the loss - the new overseas buyer or the shipping company - I vote for the shipping company.
 I would strongly suggest that the vehicle remain in the country and not be shipped out until the matter is resolved.
 Good luck, Xavier
 

[The Tassie Devil(le)]

I will throw in my two Cent's worth.

Firstly, as others have said, once the sale was completed, the vehicle was no longer covered by your own Insurance Cover, even if you had kept it insured.

Secondly, the Purchaser, seeing as he lived overseas would have found it VERY DIFFICULT to obtain any form of Insurance whilst living overseas.

Thirdly, the Carrier is the person responsible for any damage that can be shown was the result of mis-handling of the Carrier, whether it be in transit over land or sea.   Carriers carry Insurance for Liability.

Fourthly, if the Container falls overboard during a Storm, or the Land Carrier loses the vehicle in the middle of an Earthquake, these events are considered to be an "Act of God" and therefore, no Insurance.

Fifthly, if the Container Ship runs aground, sinks, etc, and can be salvaged, the cost of that Salvage will be divided up equally between all the Consignees of the Containers, and that is the reason why you obtain Insurance with the Container Carrier before the Container departs the Wharf.

I know all this from having personally imported vehicles to Tasmania

At least, in this case, the Damage can be narrowed down to a single carrier, and therefore, this carrier can be held liable for the damage he or she caused.

But, Legally, it will be up to the Owner to arrange the wheels to be put into motion, but he will need assistance from someone locally.

Bruce.

[Bill Podany #19567]

mb,

This situation is most unfortunate, especially because the new owner failed to insure the car before transporting it cross-country.  If the carrier admits that the car was damaged while being transported, then it will send an independent appraiser to review the damage and estimate the cost of repairs (based on local market prices for these services).  The transporter's insurance company will likely issue the new owner a check based on the appraisers report.  It is unlikely that the transporter would agree to having the car repaired at a shop of the owner's choice, and it is likely they will not pay for any transportation to the shop for repairs, or its return.  If the car had been insured by a top notch company (Hagerty, for example) then they would satisfy the requests from the owner and take up the fight with the transporter.  The insurance company for the transporter will understate the cost of the claim-damage considerably, and unfortunately the new owner is faced with absorbing costs to return the Buick to its pre-damaged condition.  In my own case with a claim against the transporter, the actual repair cost ended up to be double the cost estimated by their insurance company.  Fortunately, I had good insurance, and my out of pocket cost was minimal. 

Bill Podany
Knoxville, TN

[Dave and Deb]

If the buyer chooses to transport the car without insurance that's the risk they accept.  It will be up to them to claim against the trucking company. We've always insured our cars from the point of sale to their arrival in Australia, this includes the trucking to LA.  It's not cheap but at least if something were to go wrong we could have claimed on our transit insurance and left the insurance company to fight things out.   

Dave & Deb