[Neighbors] Damage to Neighborhood Wall from Car Wreck Last Night

[Sanders, John]

Hi neighbors-You may have noticed today that our neighborhood wall was substantially damaged overnight.  The section that was hit is on Joe and Roxanne Underwood's property at Royal and St. Lazare.  Their property is located adjacent to Royal in between St. Lazare and the St. Lazare/Bushire alley.  I came upon the crash site around 1:00 am this morning.  At that time, there were no police or fire personnel on scene, nor were there any witnesses.  The damaged wall section was clearly visible, along with a four-door SUV, which had come to rest in the alley with all airbags deployed.  I called 911 and police and fire immediately responded.  I did not get a chance to speak to the officers and do not know whether an individual was still in the car.  I'm not sure if the accident happened because the driver swerved to avoid something, was drunk, or distracted.  My suspicion is that the person fled on foot after the accident because there was no one around that I could see.  I'll be obtaining the police report next week, which will contain more details and specifics on the car involved and the owner.

The damage to the neighborhood wall brings up a few issues.  I'm unsure who actually owns the wall.  If it belongs to the homeowner whose property is adjacent to that section of the wall, then Roxanne has a claim against the driver.  But I know that Joe recently died and Roxanne has some diminished capacity.  Many of you recently helped Roxanne transition to assisted living, so it is very likely that her family does not know of the accident and the damage to her property.  Does someone have contact info for her family so that I can reach out and let them know what happened and offer to help them go after the driver's insurance to repair our wall?

It may turn out that the police report shows that no driver was present and if the owner fled to avoid police scrutiny, it is very probable that the owner will claim that the car was stolen, which will leave Roxanne's family without recourse against the driver and their insurance I believe.

To the extent that the wall is a community asset, I'd appreciate those who were involved with the previous wall project to weigh in and confirm.  If so, I'm happy to chase down the claim against the driver and get their insurance to rebuild the broken section, although we could still run into a dead end if the driver fled and claims the car was stolen.

To the extent that the wall is Roxanne's property, or to the extent we run into a dead end going after the driver, my fear is that we may need to step up as neighbors and pool some money together to repair the wall.  I doubt her family will want to make an insurance claim on her insurance, and frankly I'm not sure if a community wall would be covered by a homeowners' policy, but I'm no insurance expert.

Anyways, welcome everyone's comments.  Hopefully this is something we can get solved and corrected expeditiously.

Best,

John


John C.C. Sanders, Jr.
Partner
Winston & Strawn LLP
2121 North Pearl Street, Suite 900
Dallas, TX 75201
D: +1 214-453-6462
F: +1 214-453-6400
Bio<http://www.winston.com/en/who-we-are/attorneys/sanders-john-c-c.html> | VCard<http://www.winston.com/vcards/290553.vcf> | Email<mailto:jsanders at winston.com> | winston.com<http://www.winston.com>
[Winston & Strawn LLP]


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