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![handle is hein.gao/gaobabjsw0001 and id is 1 raw text is:
UNITED STATES GENERAL ACCOUNTING OFFICE
' ,WASHINGTON, D.C. 20548
IN REPLY
REFE To: B-l96022
OFFICE OF GENERAL COUNSEL
April 7, 1980
Ms. Carol A. Latterman
Assistant Regional Counsel
General Services Administration
26 Federal Plaza
New York, N.Y. 10007
Dear Ms. Latterman:
This concerns your request for revie of our denial of a claim (B-196022,
October 15, 1979) by State-Wide Insurance Company, as subrogee of MacKay Pub-
lishing Corporation, under the Federal Tort Claims Act. The claim was for
damage to one of MacKay's vehicles resulting from an automobile accident on
April 30, 1979, in Hartsdale, New York, involving a GSA motor pool vehicle
driven by a GAO employee. The Government's car was also damaged in the
accident. Counsel for State-Wide has proposed a settlement under which State-
Wide would pay 50% of the damages to the Government's car if the Government
paid 50% of State-Wide's claim.
In our denial of the claim, we concluded that the cause of the accident
was the failure of Mrs. Kristt [the driver of the MacKay vehicle] to observe
the stop sign before entering the intersection. That conclusion was based
on the factual statement of Mr. Norman Krieger, the GAO employee-driver. How-
ever, you state that you were informed by State-Wide that Mrs. Kristt claimed
her vehicle was stopped at the stop sign when it was struck by the GSA vehicle.
In light of the new allegations described in your letter, we discussed the
matter again with Mr. Krieger who reiterated that Mrs. Kristt. went through a
stop sign and struck the driver's side of his vehicle as he was making a
left-hand turn. Mr. Krieger also stated that Mrs. Kristt admitted fault after
the accident occurred.
There were no independent witnesses or police reports to support either
version of the accident. If this were just a matter of going into court with
contradictory statements leading to opposite conclusions, we would probably
agree with your recommendation that accepting a 50% settlement would be less
costly than risking an adverse judgment following litigation. However, the
Government's case is stronger than the mere unsupported statement of its
employee. The record shows that the GSA vehicle sustained $200 worth of
damages on the driver's side of the car, from the front door to the rear](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.gao/gaobabjsw0001&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)