Who is liable if my garage door came down on my friend’s car by accident?
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Who is liable if my garage door came down on my friend’s car by accident?
My roommate’s friend came over to work on his car. He decided to park his car under the garage door. My garage door opener is on my key ring. The assumption is that as I was walking out of the house, the edge of my wallet depressed the button resulting in the garage door closing on the car and scratching the paint. Whose fault would this be?
Asked on August 21, 2014 under Accident Law, California
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 9 years ago | Contributor
It would most likely be your friend's fault, in that he was more negligent, or careless:
1) sometimes buttons on remotes get pushed by accident; it is not negligent, which is "unreasonably" careless for that to happen, unless you were doing something make it more likely than usual for that to happen;
2) on the other hand, it is unusually careless or negligent to park a car under any door or gate that may descend on it.
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