The cost of the repair seems outrageous.
Seems like the owner of the dogs is at fault.
looked to see what kind of neighberhood. A house a block down is listed on Zillow for $28k
Yep.
“French provided copies of repair estimates for dents and paint damage he alleged were caused by the mail carrier, totaling approximately $4,500.”
—
Back in the day, my Dad could have gotten a dozen good used cars for that money. He could really wheel-deal and knew autos well enough.
I think it would be inconvenient to have a vehicle damaged in that way but I would actually be happy to have been able to help the maiman. It is a small price to pay to save someone from serious injury. I doubt that anyone could actually do 1500 worth of damage to a pickup truck by jumping in the back. Not to mention the selfish attitude of the owner. It’s just a vehicle and that mailman could be a friend in the future. A vehicle is a treasure that moth and rust consume.
The cost of repair seems out of step with damage done by the mail carrier jumping onto the back of the truck. It seems much more likely that he needs to take up his dispute with his neighbor who caused the hazard to begin with. The USPS is not at fault, the neighbor is at fault.
Dog owners should be the ones paying.
PostMaster should suspend door delivery at that location. Require a curbside mail box that can be serviced from the street or sidewalk -or- a post office mail box.
Somebody should quickly pay up and make this go away and be thankful they are not dealing with Hospital bills and legal fees.
Seems to me that the dogs owners should be liable for the damage, not the USPO...
He needs to sue the owner of the dogs, not the post office.
Ayup. But the Post Office has deeper pockets.
Puleeeeez! The USPS pay for anything? They don’t pay for lost or damaged packages. I had many, don’t recall getting anything from them. They lost the packages and refused payment for them. They put you through a wringer with paper work and then come up with some cockamamie excuse why they won’t pay. My insurance company paid for the loss. 2 loose pit bulls? Looks like the proximate cause is the loose dogs. The act of the carrier was reasonable and prudent. In this case the USPO owes their employee a defense.
A mailman jumping into the back of this Dodge Ram caused $4500 in damage? This is why you buy a Ford.
I do not see any damage.
The truck owner is a scam artist, most likely.
The shop that provided the estimate should be investigated for fraud.
Sounds like a neighborhood full of criminals.
You are correct. The dog owner is at fault. The way this goes, as I understand it, is that the USPS sues the dog owner to recover its loss. The USPS should be happy to pay the vehicle owner reasonable damages, and roll this is the liability of the dog owner.
The owner of the dogs has no money. The USPS does.
If a person jumping into a Dodge ram pickup bed causes 4500 in damage what would happen with a load of gravel? Moral here is to stay away from ram pickups. I had a Nissan frontier. Picked it up after dark from the dealer new. Next day in light noticed the tailgate was crooked. Had a tonneu cover on it. Took it to the dealer and the service writer told me the tonneu cover had damaged the tailgate! It was factory installed! She would t budge so I started talking really loud about how weak the truck bed must be and I better never even step or sit on the tailgate. Service manager heard me as did every other patron in the place. Tailgate got fixed in minutes and I was on my way.
I don't think the carrier was weighing his options at the time. His only thought was probably "Feets, don't fail me now".....LOL!
USPS should not pay.
“Seems like the owner of the dogs is at fault.”
That is how I see it.