Personal Injury Resources

In this car accident litigation, the Mercedes dealership collected more than the cost of the repair since its new car had less value after a car accident.

In American Service Center V. Helton the D.C. Court of Appeals held that remedies for injury to personal property include residual diminution in value after repair.

In this case, there was an automobile accident involving an Avis rental and a Mercedes Benz owned by a large Mercedes dealership, the American Service Center. Avis paid for the repairs to the Mercedes, but American Service Center sued to also recover the net residual diminution in value after repair. The Court held that:

when a plaintiff can prove that the value of an injured chattel after repair is less than the chattel’s worth before the injury, recovery may be had for both the reasonable cost of repair and the residual diminution in value after repair, provided that the award does not exceed the gross diminution in value.

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