Experience

During the decades of its existence in the local market and abroad, Tossman & Co. carried out many assignments related to handling significant losses and surveying in Israel and abroad. Hereunder is a small selection of assignments handled by the company that were significant or had an historic and economic interest:

The late Sam Tossman was one of the senior and the first in the field in Israel and handled several significant events:

In the 40’s of the previous century, a DC-3 Aircraft, which carried a cargo of diamonds to Israel for cutting and polishing, crashed in Lod. The crash was in an open field in the area of the airport and pieces of the aircraft of were scattered over a large area. Sam Tossman cooperated with the management of the airport, the police and the owners of the cargo, closed the area and scraped the surface of the site. After collecting and gradually sifting the soil collected from the crash site, he succeeded in finding and returning 70% of cargo of diamonds that was lost in the crash and was insured at Lloyds in London.

In the beginning of the fifties of the previous century, the U.S government volunteered to help rebuild the Jewish settlement in Israel by funding a loan of 180 million dollars (as part of a plan known as Lend & Lease) a sum that was considered a great fortune back then, like milliards of dollars in today’s terms. For three years shipments of equipment and materials for Kibbutzim and settlements in Israel were sent as part of the plan, which was insured by Chubb Insurance Company with a maximal sum of 2 million dollars for a single shipment. Sam Tossman was appointed as the exclusive agreed loss adjuster and claim handler of all the losses caused to equipment and materials that were shipped Sam Tossman employed a team of engineers and experts all over Israel who handled all the submitted claims related to the shipments (Claims Settling Agent). The appointment of Mr. Tossman was agreed upon by Chubb Company, the U.S government and the various settlement representatives.

In the sixties and seventies, Tossman office, head by the late Sam Tossman, handled several claims for significant losses. Among these are: the fire in the Elite factory in Nazareth, the fire in SAE Afikim factory and many more.

Since then and until this very day, Tossman & Co., managed by Arnon, Shmuel and Ron, handle a major part of the extensive and complicated losses in Israel and abroad, both property and liability losses of all kinds. Hereunder are a small part of them:

In the beginning of the seventies, Mr. Arnon Tossman handled a losses to hundreds of elaborate hi tech machines that make sweaters sustained by a fire in the Forchester sweater factory in Ashkelon. The handling of the loss included bringing many experts from abroad to fix the machines and a debate with the customs authorities on significant payments of customs for warns which were imported of manufacturing sweaters designated for export- by the drawback/ restitution method which was costmary at those times. After many debates with the authority, an exemption from the payment of the hundred thousand worth custom tax was achieved in a discussion at court in which it was proved that the load was not used inside Israel (all burned up) and, therefore, it was exempted from custom payment.

On the 22nd of November at 6:15 am, there was an earthquake in Eilat Bay which caused damage to a lot of property. Tossman Office was appointed by insurers as a leading office for handling most of the losses which were sustained, including damage to 11 of the largest and most luxurious hotels in Eilat and damage to 70 resident buildings in the city. Among the most significant damage sustained which we handled were included millions of dollars damage to the Royal Beach and King Salomon hotels, and also a total damage to the Malkat Sheba hotel (a 400 room hotel) which had to be demolished and rebuilt. Our office supervised the entire construction process and was responsible for getting payment authorization to insurers and reinsurers according to the actual construction on site.

In another case, Tossman office was directly appointed by a large American insurers – Saint Paul, Travelers- to be a claim settler of claims submitted because of the poisoning of 1,200 dogs. Amongst these were included dogs who belonged to the military and other security forces, who were poisoned due to a flaw in the dog food production by the American Diamond Company. Tossman office settled all the claims submitted and made hundreds of thousands of dollars of compensation payments to dog owners, vats and animal hospitals.

Another interesting case is the handling of the fire in the biology lab in the Tel Aviv University. As part of the handling there was a need for providing a solution for the coral samples taken for years from reefs around the world in different periods of time, because these couldn’t be collected. In addition, a lot of valuable lab equipment was severely damaged which required fixing or replacement, including building a new lab.

When damage by a generator during the construction and erection of an electrical power plant, we visited the manufacturer’s factory in Czech Republic to which the 185 MW generator was sent for repairs as a part of our handling process. Following the visit, we succeeded to save the generator and to convince the manufacturer to give a guarantee for the repairs and not to obligate the client to buy a new generator.

We were also called for handling damage sustained by the No. 22- Okef Krayot road as a result of subsidence in several locations following its construction and the road was opened to the public. As a part of our handling we had to find out the source and cause for the subsidence and to estimate the costs of the extensive repairs which included replacement of many sections of the road while directing the traffic in order to prevent the closure of the road during the repairs.

Handling a flooding of a medication warehouse during a storm on Jan. 2013.  As a part of our handling there was a need to address the pact that the packages, which were completely damaged, were included Hebrew writing on them. Without these packages with the Hebrew writing, it is impossible to market the merchandise in Israel and, therefore, there was fear that the insured will lose a major part of the revenue and the market. In addition, there was a need to urgently clean the warehouse so that the other medications, which were not damaged as a result of the water, will not be disqualified because of inappropriate storage environment.

In order not to burden on our reader, we will specify shortly some more significant losses that were handled by Tossman & Co. office during the many years of its activity:

–          All losses during construction of road No. 6

–          All losses during construction of the Yuval port and the Carmel port.

–          All the losses of the floods and inundation in Bat Heffer, road 531 and road no. 1 construction projects, the expansion of the Ben Gurion Airport, all the collision and fire damages of the Israeli Railway Company (including visits and inspections at the manufacturer in Bombardier, Denmark), flood damage in Romania in Africa-Israel mall, fire damage at Rekah, fire damages in Tel Aviv University, Weizmann Institute and Bar Illan University.  The loss of the collapse in the railway tunnels in Modiin and the bypass road in Nazareth. Losses in power plants of the electric company, including inspections of equipment sent for repairing abroad. Damage sustained in most distillation facilities. Damage occurrences in bakeries and slaughterhouses- and many more.

It is important to state that in the framework of our office’s activity, we have carried out many surveys of the construction of Terminal 3 in Ben Gurion Airport, the construction of road no. 6 (Hotze Israel Company and Derech Eretz Company), a survey of “Hanativ Hamair” (the Fast Lane) project, Yuval port project, Hacarmel port project, a survey of the construction of the railroad to Jerusalem (including the tunnels), the light railway project in Tel Aviv (for insurers abroad), a survey of Adicii- Audos road ( a bypass road in Athens, Greece),  direct ordered by reinsurer Munich Re. Preforming IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards ) for all the military industry factories in Israel, the construction of the power station in the Ivory Coast, distillation plants, surveying the Palram factories in Israel, Europe and the U.S, surveying Fatal hotels in Israel and all over Europe (including actual visits and inspections in all of them), surveying all the property of Cinema City in Israel and around the world, surveying property and the activity of all the cellular companies in Israel, and more similar and general projects and property and other various numerous projects.

We will be happy to provide the reader any general information that is needed.