aawood
04-27-2007, 03:02 PM
Thanks in advance for any advice. Our daughter was recently involved in an accident in Knoxville, TN while driving a car registered to me. She was travelling north on an undivided 4 lane street on a steep uphill grade. The other driver was travelling East (from our daughter's left). The other driver ran a stop sign and our daughter hit her in the passenger side. Due to the steep grade, our daughter's lane does not have to stop. The intersection is very clearly posted "oncoming traffice does not stop". I contacted the other ins. company and they had an adjuster look at our car and do an estimate. He told us that there might be damage he couldn't see as he couldn't get the hood open and we needed to take the car to a shop and have a breakdown done. After we did this, the body shop contacted him (the adjuster) and told him the car could be fixed for his estimate. He told them to go ahead if they were who we wanted to use. In the meantime, I spoke with the ins. company regarding a rental car. At that time, April 2d, they said they weren't yet accepting full liability until they got statements from both drivers. When I questioned them about this, they said "so you're not accepting our offer of 75%?" and I said not under the present circumstances. Now the car is fixed and when I contacted them yesterday about payment they again said they were only accepting 75% liability based on their "opinion" there were contributing factors on our daughter's part. They explained to me that this was because their driver had already crossed 2 lanes of traffic. Needless to say, I was livid. After some heated arguring, they called back and said they would accept 90%. I am still not satisfied with this as their driver was at fault. In the police report, under driver's actions, it states for driver #1 "no contributing actions". Their driver was cited for failure to yield right of way, and the report states this. I found out today that they didn't even have a copy of the police report on file. They said what the police determined had nothing to do with their "opinion". It is not necessarily a matter of the money, but the fact that they think they can just arbitrarily decide what they should have to pay. I have told them I'm not paying a dime (although I know I may have to eventually). I have run this by my insurance company and they agree that although TN law does allow for contributing factors, they would have to have something more substantial than their "opinion" that they are basing their decision on. Would really appreciate any advice on this matter. I have threatened them with litigation and told them I would not pcik up or pay for the car and that the body shop will begin charging storage fees.