This is how State Farm Insurance interprets the situation:
If the whole tree, or at least the portion that fell, was
obviously dead then the homeowner's policy for your friend
would pay for your damages because S.F. would view your
friend as being negligent for not removing the tree/branch
and thus was liable for your damages.
If it was an apparently healthy tree / branch that fell,
then your automobile comprehensive insurance would pay,
after deductible AND subject to discounting for any
existing damage to the vehicle which would get repaired
along with the tree damage AND limited to the pre-treefall
value of the vehicle.
I know this because I had a healthy maple tree fall on a
neighbor's hedgerow and wipe out one of his trees. In the
course of finding out how much of a "good neighbor" State
Farm really is when it comes to casualty losses, I posed
several 'what if' scenarios and one of them was that of a
tree of mine falling on a neighbor's vehicle.
If your friend is not negligent, he is not liable, his
homeowner's insurance pays nothing. If he was negligent,
he is liable, his insurance should pay for all damages,
and you should only have to cover the inconvenience costs.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 20 2003 - 12:04:47 EDT