Complaint / Review
American Modern Insurance Group
Company colects premiums then doesn't pay claims

I am a small marina located in CT. I had some rental boats that were insured with American Modern. We placed a claim, and had ample suporting evidence to support our claim, and they will not cover it. We have questioned the adjusters expertise and requested a new one, but they will not accomodate us.

Here is what happened. We rented a boat one morning. About 3 hours later I got a call from the customer claiming an alarm was going off. They were told to imediately shut off the boat and somebody would be out to meet them. It took approximately 1 hour to meet them and at that time the engine was still so hot that it was crackling. Upon hauling out the boat, it was discovered that the drive had impact damage. Upon taking the drive apart we found the water pump was damaged as a result of debri from the impact. The skeg, propshaft, and prop were all damaged. Upon taking apart the engine we found a valve was damaged due to detonation from running hot, which cause the engine to overheat and ingest water. That is what we found and it seemed pretty cut and dry.

Here is where it gets good. The insurance adjuster claimed that the engine didn't look overheated because there was no scoring on the cylinder walls. After hearing such an absurd comment we contacted 3 machine shops, and they all agreed that a lean condition or no oil would cause scoring however overheats usually cause warpage, cracking, detonation, and internal component failure. After going back to the insurance company with this they said that there was no burning in the water pump housing, so it couldn't have overheated. We then contacted Mercury Tech Support (The engine manufacturer) they told us that they almost never see burning to the 1/8th inch thick stainless steel housing from a rubber impeller. Usually the rubber blades just come apart, which is what ours did. Still they willnot cover the claim. I think they are trying to think of another reason as of right now.

In addition to the physical evidence, I have an executed contract from 4 day prior where the boat was rented all day and ran fine.

The opperator made it about 4 miles from our marina, so the boat was obviously running fine when it left.

The opperator stated to the insurance company that the temp gauge was pinned at 220 degrees when he shat the engine down.

In my opinion the insurance company is not honoring the policy that they wrote and my pockets are not big enough to fight them.