War Stories with Garf — Missing Baseball Card Collection (The One Big Lie)
Starring Gregg Garfinkel, Esq.
Edited & Filmed by Matthew Harvey
Watch below, from YouTube:
Full Video Transcript:
Hey Garf, how’s it
going? I’m asking around for some attorney War Stories, do you have any
interesting cases to share?
Sure come on in, Matt!
So Garf, I can tell
you’re a big baseball fan. Do you have any baseball-related war stories?
Absolutely! If you take a look around my office you can tell
that my passion is baseball, in addition to practicing law. But 8 years ago I
was retained by an insurance company regarding a baseball card claim. This
particular claim arose from a shipment of vintage baseball cards from Staten
Island, New York to Florida. The shipper claimed that the entirety of his
collection was given to the transportation company in New York, but was missing
when the goods were delivered in Florida. So basically he was saying that the
movers stole the items. So he submitted a written claim that was about 35-pages
long, detailing the players, the card manufacturer, the card, and what he paid
for it. So that information was passed along to me, and I reviewed that
information and I came up with a questionnaire.
OK, so how much was claimant
asking for?
The Claimant was requesting $450,000 and gave dollar-amounts
for each item he claimed was stolen. But one item jumped out at me when I was
reviewing the questionnaire, and that was a 1955 Tops Baseball Card of Mickey
Mantle.
Must be pretty rare.
What caught your eye about it?
Well, it’s extremely rare.
I followed up with a series of questions to the shipper about this item, and he
responded. And after I got that response I sent a one-page letter to the client
indicating that they should deny the claim in its entirety.
Only one page?
One page. That’s cause the 1955-Tops Mickey Mantle Card never existed.
*Record Scratch*
What?! Never existed?
Correct. So the whole claim, judging by that one item, was a
fraud.
Wow. So how’d you know
the card wasn’t real?
Due to a contract dispute, Tops did not have Mickey Mantle
under contract in 1955 and as a result did not make a baseball card of him. So
after I saw that item, I followed up and let the shipper — or the claimant —
basically hang himself with his own claim by providing me with further detail
about that item. After I received his response, I sent a letter to the
insurance company saying “this claim is a fraud and needs to be denied in its
entirety.”
$450,000 claim gone,
just like that?
Right, in the blink of an eye. All the insurance company did
was “We’ve referred your matter out for consideration by and expert; they’ve
deemed your claim to be fraudulent in nature and we are going to refer this
matter to the department of insurance if you proceed any further.”
Bet they never heard
from him again!
That was it. First and last time.
Wow. Well, sounds like
you were really the perfect man for the job, Garf!
Well I’d like to think so! It was one of my most enjoyable
assignments given my passion for baseball and sports memorabilia.
Alright. So tell me
Garf, what do you think the moral of the story is here? What do you think
people can learn from the story of the card that never existed?
That’s a great question. It’s very difficult to defeat these
claims; it’s basically the shipper’s word versus the transportation company.
Next to lawyers, I think that transportation companies are the least favorite
defendants that they see in court. So the key in our situation is to find the
shipper in the one big lie. And here
is was pretty self-evident that the claim was a fraud because he was claiming
items that never existed. So when you’re looking for the claims, it’s difficult
to refute each line-by-line-by-line, but if you can find one item that’s
out-of-place or never existed, then you’ve got yourself a successful defense.
Sounds like you also
need the right attorney for the job!
I would like to think so.
Hey well thanks for
taking the time to meet with me Garf! I’ll look forward to hearing the next war
story.
