This Audi A4 should have been declared a total loss. The cost to repair was $14,267.04 which was paid for by our client’s insurance company. The at-fault insurance company had $10,000 in property damage liability insurance, and our client’s insurer wanted its $10,000 policy limit. We were successful in reaching an agreement with our client’s insurance company to permit our client to receive the full $10,000 from the at-fault insurer for his diminished value and loss of use claims even though our client’s insurer would receive nothing.
Our client’s insurer was more sophisticated than many other insurance companies and recognized its insured, our client, had priority rights to the limited funds of the at-fault insurer under the common law Made Whole Doctrine acknowledged by the Florida Supreme Court in its 1992 decision in Insurance Co. of North Am. v. Lexow, 602 So.2d 528 (Fla. 1992).