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Fiction. © Copyright 1998, Jim Loy
In the days before mandatory automobile insurance laws, Andrew did not have insurance. He figured that he was a good driver, never had an accident. He wasn't worried.
Andrew drove a clunker. He figured that it was worth about $100. And the car was going to die, one of these days. A friend of his told him that this worthless car was really worth a couple thousand dollars, maybe more. Andrew checked it out. And, to his surprise, his friend was right. The Blue Book value was about $2000. One day he thought, "What I need is for somebody to bash my car. They could do $2000 damage to my $100 car."
Andrew wasn't really planning to have an accident. But, he thought about it. "I don't want to get hurt. It would be best if they hit the passenger side." One day, Andrew was stopped at a stop sign. He was about to enter a one-way street. The traffic was coming from his left, but not from his right. He thought, "Goll, I've seen people drive the wrong way on this one-way street. If one of them was coming from my right, and I pulled out in front of him, he'd be in the wrong, I'd be in the right. No problem."
Unfortunately, nobody was coming from the right. But, for months, every time that Andrew stopped at that stop sign, he thought about getting hit by some idiot going the wrong way.
And, one day, a car did come from the right. And Andrew pulled out in front of the car. Nobody was hurt. Andrew's car was totalled. And the other car, a brand new Rolls Royce, was also totalled.
The other guy's insurance company refused to pay, saying that Andrew was partly to blame. They admitted that their client was driving the wrong way. But, they said that Andrew had seen the Rolls coming. And, they were suing Andrew for recklessly causing the accident.
The trial was short. The insurance company produced a half dozen witnesses. Andrew didn't know where they had come from. They all testified that they thought that Andrew had seen the Rolls coming, and could have avoided the accident. Andrew had no witnesses.
The jury ruled that the driver of the Rolls was 90% at fault, and that Andrew was 10% at fault. Andrew got 90% of the value of his car, $1800. The insurance company got 10% of the value of the Rolls, $8000.