A Quirk of the Calendar

So this year July 4 falls on a Tuesday.  Edna is here for the weekend -- tomorrow she'll fetch her husband Marc and check into the Raleigh Hotel on Miami Beach, where Wifey and I plan to meet them.  We're not staying over -- just spending the afternoon and evening, and hopefully seeing the fine Beach fireworks display.

This year's calendar quirk reminds me of the same one years ago, and how I used it to great advantage.

In June, Paul and I were hired by a young mother who had suffered a terrible tragedy:  her sister had taken her 4 year old out for a car ride, and put her in the front passenger seat, right under the warning sign that said, essentially, "Idiot Aunt:  don't put your adorable 4 year old niece in this seat, since the airbag might paralyze her if you get in a crash."

Awfully, that's precisely what happened -- the delightful child was left a quadriplegic from the crash.  The aunt had only $10,000 of liability coverage, which was a drop in the bucket of this child's needs.  So Paul and I set about trying to make a case against the car manufacturer -- maybe the sign wasn't enough.  Several leading auto experts said it was, plus federal law essentially precluded us from suing.  So we seemed stuck.  Then I got an idea...

I would try to get the aunt's carrier to NOT settle for the small policy.  In Florida we have something called bad faith, which, without getting into details, holds that if a carrier should settle a claim but doesn't, the coverage limit no longer applies.

It was late June.  I realized that the coming July 3 was on a Monday, and NOT a legal holiday, but that Tuesday July 4 was, of course.  I knew that NO ONE was going to work on that Monday, least of all overworked and underpaid insurance company adjusters.

So I wrote a simple letter to the carrier, that said, in effect, that their insured (the aunt) had caused millions in damage, but had only $10K in coverage.  The demand was that they settle by Monday, July 3.

Paul, as was typical, said it would never work.  He was wrong.  On July 5, I came to the office (I took the 4 day weekend like everyone else) and immediately checked the mail.  I prepared a lawsuit against the aunt and filed it.

I got a call soon after from a senior lawyer from the insurance company's lawyer -- laughing me off.  "David -- I see what you're trying to do.  Creative, young man, but it won't work.  Heh heh..."

I answered with feigned naivete:  "Dan (his real name) -- I don't know what you mean.  I simply asked your client to settle, they didn't, and now I must forge ahead and get this poor 4 year old proper compensation."

Within a year, we received a multi  million dollar settlement.  We set up a trust for the little girl.  Sadly, but probably thankfully, she died a few months later.  Her parents inherited the money.

I say thankfully since she was not only a quadriplegic, but dependent on a ventilator.  Her life would have been just awful.

But my job was to try to compensate her, and was able to do so -- thanks to a quirk of the holiday calendar.

And I rather DID enjoy running into Dan months later, outside the courthouse.  He waved at me.  I waved back, and winked.