Manufacturing Plant Flood Claim

Floods destroyed our client’s main manufacturing plant in an old mill building in Rhode Island. All the equipment was shut down and was being moved to protect it from further damage, so we couldn’t see how each machine worked or get an understanding the overall manufacturing process.

However, a year earlier the company had set up a satellite plant in El Salvador, Central America. The El Salvadoran plant produced most of the items in the product line. We visited the El Salvadoran plant, which gave us a much better understanding of the company’s business as well as the issues of manufacturing in a third world country. We were able to observe each machine’s operation as well as the production flow. This was particularly important due to the large size of the loss and its many components: Extra Expense, Business Interruption, Building and Personal Property.

The Chief Financial Officer of the company did not initially see the benefit to hiring a Public Adjuster. However, it is the insured’s responsibility to prove the extent of the loss. In this situation, the significant investment of time and effort we spent paid huge dividends in preparing and defending the insurance claim. We were able to leverage this to our Insured’s benefit and get an excellent and fair settlement.