#CaseSTUDY

Despite the initial skepticism of most companies in a case described as “impossible” to solve, the BARBUSS team, against all odds, decided to take it anyway. The case study we bring you today involves flood-damaged agrochemical products stored in a local warehouse and no apparent solution.

With complex and complicated cases, the vast majority of companies do not even bother trying to solve the situation, often considered a waste of time, resources and money. Given the few or null chances, they believe that achieving a positive result is practically impossible.

In this particular case, the Insured hired a local warehouse to store several agrochemical products. The river close-by overflowed due to a storm, causing a flood in the warehouse and damages to the products insured by our client. The most challenging element was the fact that the damages were caused by the flood of the river, resulting in the loss of the agrochemical products insured. At plain sight, it appeared there was no opponent to claim against.

However, despite this context, the BARBUSS team did not lose faith in the adverse context and found a way to investigate potential alternative ways to recover. Therefore, we were  able to find a solution to a claim that seemed lost at first sight.

There is always a chance of recovery

The strategy we used was to consult an engineering expert in Hydrology to
verify if the warehouse was built in an area were these sorts of events (floods) are frequent. If that was the case, to verify if it had been taken into account when it was built. With an early assignment of the case, we were able to work hand to hand with the surveyor and gather the necessary documentation.

Besides the apparent lack of opponent, there was an additional issue: if we managed to demonstrate that the warehouse was built in an area were floods were common and no measures were taken into account while the construction took place, the liable party was a company with a lot of local presence and influence, so we knew we necessarily needed to file the claim at court.

As there wasn’t a recognition of responsibility from the company that owned the warehouse, we filed presentation at court to produce preliminary proceedings with the assistance of an Engineering expert. By this means, we were able to verify if the construction was made with the proper considerations and measures that specific area -that is propense to be flooded- requires.

By this we collected more information about who could be held liable for not taking the proper measurements in the conservation of the agrochemicals that were in that warehouse and created pressure for a solution.

Our client was always informed of each step we took on the claim presentation and its possibilities. The claim entered with 0% chance of recovery under our client’s view.
With the recovered information, we focused on one of the opponents, who after BARBUSS persistence, manage to find a responsible party.