The child’s parents were required to pay for the broken artwork, but their insurer paid most.
The Kansas insurance company has covered the parents of a boy who knocked over a statue worth $132,000.
The video was used as evidence against the boy and the parents were required to cover the cost of the broken artwork. That said, their Kansas insurance company came through with a payment of $107,000 for the damage caused by the child.
The incident occurred at the Tomahawk Ridge Community Center in Overland Park, Kansas. The video revealed that on May 18, 2018, there were two kids playing around the sculpture. At one point, one of the two children decided to try to hug the statue. The result was that the artwork was toppled onto the floor, where it broke.
At the time, the child’s parents were reportedly in another room. They had been attending a wedding reception at the community center when the boy knocked over the sculpture.
The Kansas insurance company paid for the entire amount aside from the city’s $25,000 deductible.
The boy’s mother, Sarah Goodman, received a letter from the community center’s insurance provider shortly after the incident. That letter told her that she would be responsible for paying for the broken artwork as the parents had been “negligent for not monitoring their children.”
The sculpture was determined to be worth $132,000. That said, Goodman stated that she felt the amount the community center was requesting was “completely astronomical.” She added that “My children are well-supervised but all people get distracted,” as reported by Yahoo News.
The Goodmans filed a claim with their own homeowners insurance company and within two weeks, that insurer had reimbursed the city for the complete $107,000, which was the amount the city’s insurance company would have paid. The city’s insurance policy had a $25,000 deductible, so the community center would be responsible for the remainder of the payment, explained Sean Reilly, a city spokesperson.
Reilly explained that $99,000 of the money paid by the Kansas insurance company went to the artist who made the sculpture. The reason is that when the city sells the sculptures, the money goes to the artist and the city gets a 25 percent sales commission. “It’s an unfortunate situation, but it has been resolved,” said Reilly.