Diminished value claims in Missouri

Claims against the at-fault driver

In Rook v. John F. Oliver Trucking Co. (1977), the Missouri Court of Appeals held that it would not be a double recovery for an owner to recover both the cost of repairing the car and the difference between its market values before the collision and after the repairs. The court upheld the award without a credit for the repair payment.

The court distinguished a true double recovery: repair cost plus the drop in value measured before repairs.

Claims under your own policy

In Lupo v. Shelter Mutual Insurance Co. (2002), the Missouri Court of Appeals held that when the insurer has fully and adequately repaired the car, its liability under "repair or replace" wording is capped at the cost of returning the car to substantially the same physical and mechanical condition. The court distinguished cases where the repair was inadequate.

The wording of your own policy, and the quality of the repair, both matter.

Filing deadline

Missouri gives five years for an action for taking, detaining, or injuring any goods or chattels (Mo. Rev. Stat. 516.120(4)).

Missouri's claims rule requires an insurer to give a third-party claimant without a lawyer written notice 60 days before a deadline expires (20 CSR 100-1.050). Do not rely on that notice; plan around the five-year date. A Missouri attorney can confirm how it applies to your dates.

How diminished value claims tend to go in Missouri

Missouri's claims rule says that when liability and damages are reasonably clear, an insurer may not steer a third-party claimant to the claimant's own policy (20 CSR 100-1.050(2)(A)). It also requires replies to claim communications within 10 working days (20 CSR 100-1.030).

Rook is the case owners and adjusters cite on the double-recovery question.

Many insurers answer a diminished value request with a formula rather than a market study. The best known is the 17c formula, which came out of the Georgia class actions over first-party claims that followed State Farm v. Mabry; its name comes from paragraph 17(c) of an injunction in one of them. It starts from a capped share of the car's value before the crash, then reduces it with damage and mileage modifiers. A law-firm survey notes it was built for that class action and has not been formally adopted for general use.

Adjusters commonly ask for proof that the repaired car is worth less, not only proof that it was damaged. Records that tend to matter: the final repair invoice and photos, the estimate showing any structural or frame work, the vehicle history report entry, and written market evidence such as dealer quotes or listings for the same car with and without an accident history.

Lost value is easiest to show once repairs are finished, because the value after repair is what gets compared with the value before the crash.

If you have a complaint about claim handling

The Missouri Department of Commerce and Insurance, Division of Consumer Affairs, takes complaints about how an insurer handled a claim. File with the Missouri Department of Commerce and Insurance.

Next steps

• How Reclaim's diminished-value check works
• Estimate a figure with the diminished value calculator
• How to file a diminished value claim
• Diminished value claims in Illinois
• Diminished value claims in Arkansas
• Diminished value rules in every state