Here's the deal on Punitive Damages

Posted by Brian in NY on January 12, 2007 at 07:35:49 from (12.149.100.21):

In Reply to: Re: O/T Pickup Accident posted by trw on January 11, 2007 at 19:51:06:

Well, if your wife was not injured, in most cases you would have no case to make a claim over and above the claim for the truck.
Punitive damages are really just something a court awards to make an example of someone. In this case the person who hit your truck would have had to be doing something very irresponsible or hainous. DWI, vehicular assualt, etc.
If that is not the case, punitive damages are just not realistic.
I guess you could file a claim in county court...but that is going to cost you lots of time and money.
Plain and simple by law, they owe you the lesser of a)Cost to repair, b)Actual Cash Value of the truck. In no event will they pay the cost to repair the truck if the actual value is less.
That's the plain and simple truth unfortunately.
Sometimes people own a vehicle that has sentimental value to it; but in most cases the valuations are accurate. It might not seem so to you right now, but I would wager that with cash in your hand, you could go out and get a similar truck at a dealer for close to the value of your own.
That being said...
Only a couple of possibilities here.

1)Did you get a rental vehicle from the at fault party's company? If you didn't they may owe you for one. You might be able to leverage that into some additional cash...You might have to elevate this issue to a regional manager.

2)If your state recognizes something called "dimunition of value", you may be able to make a claim for that. However if they have deemed the vehicle a total loss, this is likely not a factor.

I wish you luck on this, but to be honest it seems like you are kind of past the point of no return. I agree you should not have been put into this position, but someone should have explained your options to you when this first happened.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

Brian

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