Earthquake damage, was Re: National holiday non booty earthquake rain day

[JIMRPT@AOL.COM]

In a message dated 6/19/2000 12:54:51 AM, you wrote:

<<"I wasn't speaking from an insurance fraud perspective, but rather from a
technical one.">>

Ron;
 Yes I understood that but...... they are really two parts of the same 
equation aren't they?

 With your Tornados and my Hurricanes it is fairly simple to tell when damage 
has been done .......in your case the piano has been carried 15 miles away 
and dumped on the ground from 3,00 feet or so...and in mine the piano has 
been slammed into an Oak tree and then carried a mile or so away by tidal 
surge!! :-)

  'Possible' Earthquake damage dohickies, such as cracks in boards/crazing of 
poly finishes, etc., are more difficult, if not impossible, for us to 
precisely ascribe a causal realtionship for. Of course when the legs have 
collapsed and the case has fallen on one of them, leaving the caster sticking 
up through the board by the bass bridge..and this happened during the same 
period of time when the kitchen wall collapsed...... we can confidently say 
that the earthquake caused the "alleged" damage to occur. :-) Of course even 
that damage may not have happened had the movers put in the DANGED leg bolts 
when the piano was set up instead of just setting the legs in their 
respective leg plates>>>>>>>>>>>!

 So I suppose what this boils down to is that 'probably' the most we can say 
about "fresh white wood" cracks in soundboards is that they 'are' there and 
unless we have intimate knowledge of the particular PSO that is all we 'can' 
say. In addition we can/could say that the customer says "WELL, that crack 
wasn't there before the earthquake!"

 Can movers cause immediate and proximate damage? Yep, and fortunately this 
is more easily authenticated such as when a PSO is dropped from a truck ramp, 
lands on its top and the two rims separate! :-( (I know, I am fully trained 
in this particualr event. :-)

So that brings us to the post that spurred your rsponse, i.e.
<<"Fraudulent claims to insurance companies do happen; our job is to try to 
know the difference and be responsible in our actions.">>D.

 Example: Earthquake of 9.925, on the Ricther scale, hits and afterward the 
customer calls for insurance claim work/quote. New scratch/scrub marks all 
over the lid of their grand are clearly fresh and match the dimensions of the 
30 Sterling Silver picture frames of the familys rouge gallery which sit on 
top of the thingee. Clearly caused by vibrational and unidirectional movement 
of what ever was in contact with the floor, i.e., the PSO. This would 
rightfully be ascribed to EQ damage.  However the 14" gouge in the side that 
the customer says was also caused by the earthquake...you know the one that 
has been touched up and is filled with furniture polish/wax?..... EQ 
damage?...........  transferred to the sound board this would equate to no 
case/leg/parts damage and "fresh white wood" cracks
in the board.
  I personally would not feel comfortable saying that these cracks were 
definitely  "caused" by the EQ or even that the newly discovered cracks were 
made worse by the EQ.

  So the... "know the difference"... 'to me' applies to my knowledge and its 
limitations as well as to evidentiary presentaton.
My view.
Jim Bryant (FL)