The Case of the Lawn Monster

Whenever one of my rich friends invited me over for a weekend at their house lounging around the pool in a silk robe sipping mimosas, I said “yes” faster than Donald Trump’s right-hand man.

This weekend I was staying on Ronnie and Jill’s palatial 230-acre estate out in the country. The place was so fancy, it had its own name—The Plantation—which made me wonder if I should change my name to The Ace to give myself more clout.

The sun beat down with enough heat to boil the pool water, so I sat inside with Jill, staring out at nature without having to suffer being in it.

“Where’s Ronnie?” I asked, trying to shift the little umbrella in my drink to the opposite side so I could steal a swig.

“Mowing the yard?”

“Still? That’s what you said four hours ago!”

“He has to use a push mower.”

Using a push to mow this estate was like the using a disposable razor to shave the Statue of Liberty’s legs.

“Jill, you have enough money to buy a riding lawn mower. Heck, you have enough money to hire a thousand barbers to come and give your lawn a giant trim. Why is Ronnie using a push?”

Jill giggled in a way only rich women can giggle—head arched back, one hand holding a drink and the other stroking a Chihuahua named Taco sitting in her lap.

“Ace! You slay me, really. We have a riding mower, but we can’t use it because of insurance.”

“You know I’m insurance investigator, right?”

“Insurance? Judging by the way you dressed, I thought you worked at the Salvation Army. Anyway, we have a 1991 HO-3 with the HO 23 14 personal property endorsement for our Kubota Lawn Tractor.”

“A personal endorsement for a lawn mower?”

“It cost $25,000. It’s more like a lawn monster. It has more buttons than a space shuttle. Anyway, Kubota Corp., as the lien holder, requires that we have ‘collision and upset’ coverage for physical damage on the tractor. Under the endorsement, under 3-d, collision is excluded, except for collision with a land vehicle. That means that collision with a rock, tree or a hole is not covered. But how about for ‘upset’? Say Ronnie’s on a steep grade and the tractor tips over and does physical damage to the tractor. Is there coverage under this policy for this scenario? Is there a better way to insure the monster?”

“Jill,” I said, “there’s something about that endorsement that doesn’t cut it.”

Why was Ace being so blunt? For help solving this mystery and to check your solution against Ace’s, click here.

Jonathan Hermann (hermannism@gmail.com) is an IA contributing editor.