The Car Collector

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The Desire for an Antique Vehicle

Albert Reiche had a passion for old cars. Since the trust fund set up by his maternal grandparents provided him income of $3,000,000 a year, Albert never took a job.

He began to collect cars when he turned twenty-one in 1960. He started with a 1924 Model A Ford. As the years passed, he purchased and restored for his collection an Auburn, two Duesenberg J’s, a 1928 Cadillac touring car, a 1918 Dailmer, a Willy’s J, a 1934 Packard limousine, a 1924 Bentley, and many other classic automobiles. He kept his cars in a climate-controlled warehouse.

By the time Albert turned fifty, he was the proud owner of seventy-five classic automobiles. Albert had restored all of the automobiles to a pristine, new car showroom, condition. To Albert they were priceless. Albert would never consider selling. Estimates by car buffs had valued his collection at $90,000,000 to $125,000,000. He insured the collection with a gaggle of British insurance companies with a limit of $80,000,000.

Albert, had to have the Dailmer.

Albert bought the Dailmer, which is now the pride of his collection. Since Albert was never a criminal, as the years passed and the income from his trust funds allowed, he would move one vehicle at a time from the Connecticut farm and deposit them on the streets in various communities throughout the Northeast. The police would eventually be called, trace the vehicle back to Albert, who would gladly retake possession. Since Albert had transferred title to the vehicles to his insurers upon the payment of the claim, Albert paid the insurer back the exact sum the insurer had paid him for the vehicle. Eventually, Albert recovered all of the cars he reported stolen. The insurer received back all the monies they paid.

Albert lived happily ever after.

ZALMA OPINION

Insurance is not a bucket of money for whatever the insured desires. It is a promise to indemnify another against the risk of loss of property from a contingent or unknown event, not a means to fund the purchase of an antique automobile.

(c) 2022 Barry Zalma & ClaimSchool, Inc.

Barry Zalma, Esq., CFE, is available at http://www.zalma.com and [email protected].

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