Hello,
I'm hoping someone here can offer some assistance. I live in Michigan and have full insurance coverage on my vehicle.
The other day, I pulled into a Wendy's parking lot to grab lunch. Due to the set-up of the parking lot (there are two thru-lanes behind the parking spaces), one must pull their car all the way into the space. As with many parking lots, this lot had those concrete parking curbs at the end of each parking space. Having a fairly low-sitting car ('06 Pontiac GTO), I'm accustomed to slowly pulling into spots like this to avoid scrapping the bottom of my front bumper on these concrete curbs.
Anyway, I pulled in slowly with no problem, parked, and had my lunch. When I got back in my car to leave, I had to back up at a sharper angle because a car was in one of the thru-lanes behind me at the drive-thru. Unfortunately, a metal stake/rebar was sticking up out of the parking curb, latched its way onto the side of my front bumper (which apparently is just slightly lower than the front portion), and broke it loose. Long story short - the repair to the front bumper is costly, so I had to file an insurance claim.
What I would like to recover is my $500 deductible from Wendy's. If I had been an idiot and hit the concrete curb, that would be one thing - but frankly, I feel having a small piece of rebar sticking up out of one of these curbs is negligent on the part of the property owner. A large piece of conrete anyone can see; a small metal stake sticking up out of it a couple more inches is another thing (metal rebar isn't supposed to be sticking out of curbs). This wouldn't have been a defect that just "appeared" - the parking curb/rebar was clearly installed improperly to begin with.
I went back to Wendy's after the incident and took pictures of the curb/rebar in question, as well as pictures of my vehicle showing exactly where the rebar latched onto the bumper - and also showing no other damage, as if I had carelessly hit the concrete.
So, my questions...
#1. Does it sound like I may have a claim against Wendy's to recover my $500 deductible?
#2. If so, how do I go about filing a claim against them in small claims court? Wendy's is obviously a large multi-state corporation, but many of the restaurants are privately owned franchises. Would I name Wendy's (the Corporation) as the defendant, or would I need to determine who owns the franchise?
Thanks in advance!
Matt

