QuestionDear Dr.Settlement,
Sorry for the confusion. You did answer my first question but I asked a follow-up question regarding mine and my husbands liability as the legal owners of the vehicle. In the first response only my sons liability was referred to.
THANKS MARY
Answer
Car owner liability
Vicarious liability
Imputed liability
Family car doctrine
Liability of parents
Insurance defense car owners
Hello again, Mary,
I will give you a short answer and a longer answer if you wish to go further in depth.
Short answer: you do just the same as your son: no contact with the claimants and full cooperation with your insurance company. You will be defended fully should you be sued.
Chances are that there will be no vicarious liability against you. I will go into detail for you on that topic if you want to read further. But in short, unless you were in the car, or your son was solely on a family errand, and you live in one of the 20 states that adhere to "The Family Car Doctrine", it is not very likely you would be liable.
But since we are not allowed to give a specific piece of legal advice on this site, instead I will just paint the picture in general terms. I think you have nothing to worry about, and if you were to be sued, then the attorney who is hired to defend you will go over your liability at that time. She will have good advice for you, and in the meantime it does no good whatsoever to worry about it since all will be taken care of by your attorney should you be named.
Now, for those readers who might be wondering what this question is all about, let me give you some background on Mary and her earlier question and my answer thereto.
This answer is an addition to an earlier answer made in response to a question from Mary. For the benefit of those who have not read the first question and answer, Mary was asking about what her son should do since he was liable for causing an injury accident.
Since the claimant has contacted him directly, should her son respond to the claimant? Are the claimants valuing the claim too high?
My answer to those kinds of questions was for her son to deal SOLELY with his insurance company, its adjuster, and—in the event a lawsuit were to be filed—with his attorney. It is none of his business what the claimant wants in damages or where he works or lives, etc. The insurance adjuster and attorney will take care of all of that.
The attorney represents the insured, which in this case is the son, as driver, and, in the event any action should be brought against the parents, as owners, the company represents them as well.
The present question from Mary is as to the potential for liability in the parents, who own the car the son was driving.
First, let's all agree that the same rules apply to the parents who own the vehicle with respect to NO CONTACT with the claimants, and FULL COOPERATION with your insurance company. Your company will defend you in the event any action should be initiated by the claimants against you.
Now we ask the question: upon what grounds could these claimants have a cause of action versus the parents who own the car? And don’t forget: your attorney hired for you will fully defend you in this respect and she will fight any attempt to bring you into the lawsuit.
There are some easy-to-understand examples of when an owner should be held to account for the tortous actions of the one who is driving. In most instances, we call this vicarious liability or imputed liability or sometimes derivative liability.
Let’s get rid of the ONLY example of direct liability for the owner of a car whose driver caused an accident. Sometimes this is also called derivative liability. If the owner was negligent in loaning her vehicle to the driver, then the owner can be held to account on her own liability should the driver cause an accident.
An example of that might be loaning your car to someone who is incompetent to drive. A drunk comes to mind. But anything could qualify. If the owner knows—or has reason to know—that the driver is not competent to operate the vehicle, then the owner will be held in tort for any tortous actions of the driver. That is an example of direct negligence on the part of the owner, and when the driver injures someone, the owner's liability is derivative.
Are you with me class? Good, now let’s go on to vicarious or sometimes called imputed negligence. A good example of that is when an employer has the employee driving a company vehicle for company business. The employer gets tagged for any tortous acts of the employee committed within the course of his employment.
Another example might be where the owner asks someone to drive him somewhere. For example, if you were incapacitated and could not drive from the annual office party, so you asked your coworker to drive you, then you might be held to account for actions of the coworker if she were to cause an accident.
Be patient, Mary, as we are getting to the family situation. But I wanted you to get a flavor of ways that the owner could be held to account for the actions of the driver.
If a family member is doing family chores for the benefit of the family, courts in many states have held that the family owners (usually the parents) can be liable for the negligence of the family driver. About 20 states have adopted the so-called "Family Car Doctrine." But even if your state is one of those 20, that does not mean that you will be liable since this is a theory of liability that depends upon the facts of each individual family.
So the inquiry here would be to identify the purposes for which your son was driving at the time of the accident. Was he on errands for you, or was he just off on his own, perhaps doing his social scene? If the latter, there likely will be NO grounds to sue the parents.
My take: don't worry about it: wait to see what happens; you can always ask the attorney who is hired for your son and she will analyze the facts and give you her opinion.
Take it easy, Mary,
Dr. Settlement, J.D. (Juris Doctor)
Http://www.SettlementCentral.Com
