MS Car Wreck – Can I Get Compensated For the Loss of My Car’s Value?

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MS Car Wreck – Can I Get Compensated For the Loss of My Car’s Value?

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MS Car Wreck or Accident – Can I Get Compensated For the Loss of My Car’s Value?

by Jay Foster, Mississippi Car Wreck Attorney

Our Supreme Court has held that fair compensation to recover the loss on personal property which has been damaged, but which can be repaired to a functional use, encompasses two elements: (1) cost of repairs, and (2) depreciation, if any, following repairs.

In determining what a repairable automobile is worth, for example, any expert must first calculate and determine the cost of repairs to make it functional.

Then, the expert must determine whether, following the repairs the car still will not be worth the money it was worth before the accident, and how much less. The expert then adds the cost of repairs plus the depreciation caused by the accident, even with repairs, in determining the after value. For example, assume an automobile worth $10,000 is in an accident, but can be repaired. The expert determines that it will take $5,000 to repair it, and after repair it will still be worth $1,000 less than before the accident. The expert concludes its after value is $4,000. You then have damages of $6,000.

Or, in such case, you can prove it another way. You can have an expert determine that it will take $5,000 to repair the car, but that following the repair it will still be depreciated in value $1,000 from what it was worth before the accident. On a car worth $10,000 before the accident, the damages under either approach come to the same figure. Therefore, under either approach the same reasoning is used in calculating fair compensation.

Of course, if the repairs to damaged car will make it worth just as much as it was before an accident, a calculation of the cost of reasonable repairs caused by the accident is all that is needed. In such case, however, if you prove this by an expert under the before and after rule, it will certainly be made clear from the expert’s testimony that the sole basis for determining its after value was the cost of repairs.

Cases following both approaches of the above example are Merrill v. Tropoli, 414 S.W.2d 474 (Tex.Civ.App.1967); Krueger v. Steffen, 30 Wis.2d 445, 141 N.W.2d 200 (1966); and Halferty v. Hawkeye Dodge, Inc., 158 N.W.2d 750 (Iowa 1968); also, Ishee v. Dukes Ford Co., 380 So. 2d 760 (Miss.1980).

Thomas v. Global Boat Builders & Repairmen Inc., 482 So. 2d 1112, 1115 -1116 (Miss.,1986)

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