Stone From Mower Smashed Car Window at Work - Who pays?

bex88

Hi all, just today I got a message from my mum saying that her car window has been broken from a flying stone that flew off the gardener's lawn mower. 

She has spoken to the boss (owner of the company which is their employer) but she has said my mum id liable as she parked my car there.

There is no signage to say you cannot park there or that you take responsibility if your car is damaged. The other employees also park their cars there too.

This is surely not right or fair, but I wondered if someone had a bit more knowledge into this kind of thing to let me know if she should have to pay herself to get it fixed?

Thanks in advance

Keep_pedalling

Unless the Gardner was negligent then, there is no claim against them. Does her car insurance include  a replacement windscreen service?

bex88

Thank you, I will get her check when she gets home in an hour. Its probably going to be near impossible to find out if he was negligent, I still think it's a cheek. Should there not be some kind of public liability thing he or the employer has for this sort of thing?

Aretnap

Liability insurance would only cover the gardener and/or the employer's legal liabilities (hence the name). In other words, things that the gardener or the employer would be obliged to pay for themselves if they didn't have insurance.

Generally speaking, to be liable for damage to someone else's property it has to be the result of your negligence. Negligence means failing to take the degree of care that would be expected of a reasonable person (or company). What do you think the gardener and/or the company could reasonably have been expected to have done differently which would have prevented the accident?

If it was a very large stone then I suppose you might argue that he should have seen it and not driven the mower over it, but if it was a smallish pebble that was likely hidden in the grass/soil then you can't really say that. 

To be honest this sounds like pure bad luck - not your mum's fault, but not anybody else's fault either. When accidents are pure bad luck you can't claim against anybody else; your mum either has to pay for the repairs herself, or claim in her own insurance if she has any. 

tacpot12

If your Mum has legal protection insurance as part of her motor or home insurnace she may be able to get professional legal advice on whether the landowner is liable even if their gardener isn't neligent. 

Unfortunately i expect that the  advice you have had is correct, and this is why owners of valuable items such as cars need to insure them.

bex88

She has just got home and tells me that he was in fact strimming a bush right near where she was parked. She believes it wasn't a stone, that infact it's more likely he's turned and whacked the strimmer into the window. The floor he was stood on was tarmac so would had been holding the strimmer up to the bush.

She tells me he is self employed and is paid by the business for work 2-3 times a week. He has done work for the for 15 years.

Sandtree

To claim off anyone you need to prove their negligence, given you don't even know what happened thats going to be hard to do.  Is there CCTV covering where the vehicle was parked?

Assuming its just glass then most Comprehensive insurance cover it with a lower excess, no impact to NCD and low/no impact to premiums for a single claim. Unless you enjoy the challenge its almost certainly easier to simply claim on the glass section and not worry about it again.

dunstonh

She has just got home and tells me that he was in fact strimming a bush right near where she was parked. She believes it wasn't a stone, that infact it's more likely he's turned and whacked the strimmer into the window. The floor he was stood on was tarmac so would had been holding the strimmer up to the bush.

Does she have any evidence to support that?

The guard on most strimmers is only on part of it. Mainly to protect the user.  Around 2/3rds has no guard.  So, a stone could easily fly out the side.

mattyprice4004

If you don't even know how it happened, you have no hope. Is there no CCTV?

csgohan4

Either the insurer pays or you do, depends if they have windscreen cover. If you cannot prove negligence, best to chalk it up as life. 

Legal insurance will only get involved if you have a 51%+ of winning. 

Sandtree

csgohan4 said:

Legal insurance will only get involved if you have a 51%+ of winning. 

And where the cost of bringing the case is proportional.

Assuming the OP has Glass cover then the loss is going to be circa £60 which is about 30 minutes of a paralegal's time. Many small track cases fail under LE cover because the cost of bringing the claim is disproportionate to the amount claimed.