An insurer has sued the owner of one of the rarest sports cars. Philadelphia Indemnity Insurance Co. says owner Andy House of Lufkin, Texas is not entitled to a payout for what the company says was not an accident.
The insurer alleges fraud against House and his business associate, Lloyd Gillespie, whose interest-free loan allowed House to buy a 2006 Bugatti Veyron for $1.05 million, according to court documents.
Philadelphia wrote House a collector-vehicle policy for the Bugatti that ultimately ended up in a lagoon, along with a 2003 Ferrari for an agreed value of $2.2 million. The insurer is denying payment because the Bugatti was not used as a collector vehicle and also House allegedly misrepresented his ownership—that the vehicle was bought to be resold for a profit.
At the time of the suit, House owned a car dealership, says Philadelphia. Gillespie is also named as a defendant in the case, which was supposed to go to jury trial Oct. 1 but was delayed for unspecified reasons.
The details of the suit, filed more than two years ago, are interesting to say the least—leading to national news attention because the accident was allegedly captured by the passenger of another vehicle and posted to YouTube.
So what happened? House told Philadelphia he swerved off the road and into a lagoon to avoid hitting a pelican on Nov. 12, 2009. He had owned the car for about a month at the time of the incident. The video, however, “does not appear to confirm that a pelican was in Mr. House's immediate field of vision,” according to Philadelphia.
The fact that House left the car running in the lagoon for 15 minutes after the accident—leading to severe damage to the engine—raised additional suspicion. But the allegations don't stop there. The insurer says it obtained information from a confidential informant who alleges House offered him money to “steal” the Bugatti and burn it for an insurance payout.
Other than the allegations of fraud, Philadelphia says House violated the terms of the collector-vehicle insurance policy by using the Bugatti for errands, business trips, and driving to and from work. The insurer alleges House drove the car 1,200 miles during his one-month ownership—about 2.5 times more than the previous owner did in three years.
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