QuestionI allowed my 18 yr old daughter to take a car to college 70 miles away so she would have a ride home. I am insured with Allstate. The car has had minor damage which I just paid to have fixed and at that time found out her roommate was borrower my car. My daughter is not on title but is a driver on my ins. I called in Dec. and spoke to th ermmate and told her under no circumstances is she to drive my car. She begged my daughter and she borrowered the car she said she'd be careful and was only going to the airport to get a friend 10 min away. She hit a car stopped at a crosswalk and totalled it, 2 people in the car have sore necks and she could have killed the 2 people in the crosswalk but they saw her coming and saw she wasn;t paying attention and ran back. I am furious. My ins. says dont; worry I have permissive use. I dont feel my ins should pay a dime. I blame for daughter for giving in to her but ultimately the girl who I ahev know since she was 8 and is hard to say no to (bery spoiled). I am the owner and I did not give permissive use and my daughter had no right to do so. I only gave my daughter permissive use.
AnswerHi Sherri,
I kind of winced as I started reading along in your story because I just knew where we were going with this, and it is very frustrating for parents, I know. In my former law practice Dr. Settlement had personal injury claims involving non-permissive users who caused injury accidents. Do you think that kids are just DUMB sometimes, no matter what we say to them?
I guess my point is: stuff like this happens to the best of kids, so chew out your daughter, and inform the parents of the other girl so they can do the same, but beyond that, don't be too extra hard on either of the girls. We ALL did this in college. No freshman could have a car in Boulder at the University of Colorado, so I borrowed the cars of upperclassmen fraternity members many times. It is what kids in college do, I guess. We were just stupid—and lucky nothing bad happened. Neither of these girls intended harm, and hopefully they can both make it a good learning experience. We do hope that the injured parties do recover quickly.
Having said all of that, I look back on your writing and I cannot find any question you are asking me. There are only two issues I could address regarding the situation, so I will do that.
First off, do not ever try to get in the middle of an insurance payment and discourage them from compensating whomever it is they are going to compensate. Why? Because there is then the risk that those to whom you effectively fought compensation from the insurer, may in turn sue you directly. I do not know what state you are from, so I cannot comment at all as to the viability of an injured victim versus the owner of a car driven by a non=permissive user. But even though you did not ask about this, you did make strong mention of it, so I wanted to alert you to the risk you could run if you were successful in stopping your insurer from making any payments.
Second, be thankful that your insurance will cover the repairs to the car. But there is one other aspect you have not addressed. If it were to turn out that there is some aspect that your insurance will not cover, perhaps that other girl is in fact insured on her parent's policy.
I send along a TON of good wishes—at least until your daughter graduates and is out on her own with a job and responsibilities. In the meantime, let's hope there are not too many more such "teachable moments".
I trust that my time here has produced some information that has been of value to you, and thus I would respectfully request that you take the time to locate the FEEDBACK FORM on this site and leave some feedback for me.
Best Wishes,
Dr. Settlement, J.D. (Juris Doctor)
http://www.SettlementCentral.Com
