Ifmy 12 year old son was at a friend’s house and damaged the friend’s grandfather’s ATV, what am I responsible for?

Get Legal Help Today

Compare Quotes From Top Companies and Save

secured lock Secured with SHA-256 Encryption

Ifmy 12 year old son was at a friend’s house and damaged the friend’s grandfather’s ATV, what am I responsible for?

The accident was filed under the grandfather’s home owners insurance as if he were driving it at the time of the accident, and the insurance paid for the damages. He then asked me to reimburse him a total of half of the repair bill for his troubles of being without the unit for a period of time and transporting it to the shop. How much am I legally responsible for?

Asked on June 28, 2012 under Bankruptcy Law, Mississippi

Answers:

FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney

Answered 11 years ago | Contributor

Under the laws of all states in this country, your child would be responsible for the damage to the ATV that you have written about if he was negligent in causing the damage.

The only way that you would be responsible for the damages is if you knew that your child had a pre-disposition to cause damage to property or you did not adequately supervise him or her.

From what you have written about, you are not responsible for paying any damages to the grandfather. His loss of use claim lacks merit with respect to the trouble of getting the item repaired since insurance paid for the costs of such.

This grandfather should be ashamed of himself trying to strong arm a child and his parent when his insurance carrier took care of the repairs.


IMPORTANT NOTICE: The Answer(s) provided above are for general information only. The attorney providing the answer was not serving as the attorney for the person submitting the question or in any attorney-client relationship with such person. Laws may vary from state to state, and sometimes change. Tiny variations in the facts, or a fact not set forth in a question, often can change a legal outcome or an attorney's conclusion. Although AttorneyPages.com has verified the attorney was admitted to practice law in at least one jurisdiction, he or she may not be authorized to practice law in the jurisdiction referred to in the question, nor is he or she necessarily experienced in the area of the law involved. Unlike the information in the Answer(s) above, upon which you should NOT rely, for personal advice you can rely upon we suggest you retain an attorney to represent you.

Get Legal Help Today

Find the right lawyer for your legal issue.

secured lock Secured with SHA-256 Encryption