The garage's fault or the owner's fault?

straighttalker

150940 wrote: »

If he's not driving, it may not be as cut and dry as you think.

If who's not driving?

150940

straighttalker wrote: »

If who's not driving?

The young guy steering.

reddwarf2002

This is very akward and unfortunate situation. I feel sorry for both parties.

Once during an MOT at a council place, my bonnet would not open. So the MOT tester asked me to pull the lever whilst he pushed and pulled the bonnet. It eventually opened.

After the test, when arriving home I noticed the bonnet had a small dent which was a result of the chap trying to help me. If I wanted to I could have gone back and got their insurance to cover the damage but felt it was not the right thing to do as he was only trying to help (and didn't want the poor guy to be in trouble with his employers for trying to do a good deed). So just put it down to bad luck and decided to move on.

Strider590

In addition to all of the above, batteries don't fail when driving unless the alternator has failed. So your mate is about to have another dead battery on his hands.

You wouldn't want to try it, but you could disconnect a battery once the car is started and the alternator would keep the engine running.

Richard53

150940 wrote: »

If he's not driving, it may not be as cut and dry as you think.

Everybody is using the term 'driving', but he's clearly not doing that in the accepted sense. Isn't the issue 'who is controlling the vehicle?', in which case it is the garage employee, who has the steering and brakes, if not the motive power. If the insurance company chose to make a fight of it, they would be doing it on the definitions of words, as the employee clearly had control of the car in any normal sense. Tricky one.

150940

Everyone's assuming the young guy is sat in the car and not steering it through the open drivers window.

dannyrst

arcon5 wrote: »

How ridiculous!

So if I steal your car and run down a nun i'm assuming you'll be happy to be prosecuted for it?

Your mate wasn't driving it, they was.

Lol. So we're comparing a guy pushing a broken down car to theft and dangerous driving?!

The engine wasn't on, so the car wasn't being driven. Therefore, the car was pushed into someone elses car.

Lets have a reasonable comparison, if I walked up to your car and, with your consent, pushed it into another car, do you think I would pay for the damage?! No. Your insurance would. That is why you have insurance. Any payment from the guy or the garage would be gesture of good will.

150940

dannyrst wrote: »

Lol. So we're comparing a guy pushing a broken down car to theft and dangerous driving?!

The engine wasn't on, so the car wasn't being driven. Therefore, the car was pushed into someone elses car.

Lets have a reasonable comparison, if I walked up to your car and, with your consent, pushed it into another car, do you think I would pay for the damage?! No. Your insurance would. That is why you have insurance. Any payment from the guy or the garage would be gesture of good will.

Legally that's not true.

dannyrst

150940 wrote: »

Legally that's not true.

Interesting, can you provide any legal clarification on this statement?

bigjl

Doesn't matter who was driving the car the damage was caused by your car so your insurance is liable

Your Insurance will likely try and get some money back from the garage whose employee was steering the vehicle.

Vicarious liability I would expect.