Project Assignment: Checking an Insurance Claim

Assume that you are employed by the local branch of H. L. Winman and Associates. When you arrive at work this morning, branch manager Vern Rogers calls you into his office.

"We've had a call from Hugh Smithson in our Buffalo branch," he says. "Twelve cartons of special instruments they shipped yesterday were in a truck that rolled off the highway 8 miles east of Rochester, New York. The insurance company wants someone to look over the damage with one of their adjusters, to confirm how much can be repaired or sal- vaged."

In Rochester you meet Noella Redovich of Milltown Insurance Company. She takes you to a warehouse where the smashed crates tell their own story of the violence of the accident. Very few of the delicate instruments could have survived such an impact.

You examine the crates, which are a jumble of broken glass, tangled wire, and chipped and splintered instrument cases. As you check each container, the adjuster notes the numbers in her book: 10, 4, 12, 11, 6, 3, 1, 9, 8, and 2 are totally beyond repair and obviously have no salvage value. Crate number 5, surprisingly, is hardly marked: somehow it must have been cushioned. You examine its contents.

"This one seems okay," you say.

Noella adds up the totals: "Not very good for us," she says. "Ten out of eleven means a heavy claim."

"Twelve," you say. "There were twelve crates."

Noella checks her figures and you recheck and count the crates. There are 10 smashed ones and one good one. "One is missing," you say. "Number 7."

Noella suggests it might have been stolen before the accident occurred. "The police were on the scene immediately. There would not have been time after the accident."

When you return to your office, Vern Rogers asks you to write a report and fax or email it immediately to Hugh Smithson. Here is addi- tional information you may need for your report:

• The shipping company was Merryhew Van Lines Albany.

• The waybill number was C2719.

• The 12 crates were being shipped to Melwood Test Labs, Syracuse.

• Milltown Insurance Company's local address is Room 14A, 22 Western Avenue, Rochester, New York.

• The crates are being held at C and J Storage Inc., 63 Crane Street, Rochester.

• You reported the missing crate to the police in Rochester at 2:25 p.m., immediately after completing your inspection.

Write the trip/inspection report.