Damage to vehicle on property of workplace

Entirely imaginary and hypothetical situation, of course.

A person works in a retail store. The retail store has two large gates next to it to allow access to a side-door (into stock room area, used primarily by delivery trucks).

Person working in the retail store is bringing his personal car into the side area. Person opens gates and attempts to drive through. During the course of which, a gate, assisted by a large gust of wind, blows closed, hitting the staff members car, causing a small bit of damage (circa ~€150).

The staff member was bringing his vehicle into the area to collect a product from the stock room. Oftentimes customers cars, etc. would pass through these gates.


If this completely imaginary scenario were to play out in reality, would the staff member be able to get the retail store/management to pay the cost of fixing the damage?


Cheers

the world wonders

Specifically what negligence is the employee alleging on the part of the employer?

callaway92

Completely out of the employer's hands.

Not sure of the exact term for it but what you'd be up against is it was a natural cause, so not fault would be put on the employer.

As the above poster said, the employer showed no negligence here.

Pat Mustard

It is going to depend on whether the employer was negligent and if that negligence caused the damage.

In many accident cases, there is an on-site inspection with an engineer. The engineer will usually produce a report, giving his opinion on liability, etc. At times it can be difficult to get a good opinion on liability without such an inspection.

However, for €150, it probably isn't going to be cost effective to hire a solicitor, not to mind an engineer.

Therefore, the employee may have to make up his own mind as to whether the employer was negligent, and if so, whether that negligence caused the damage. If the answer to those two questions is 'yes', then the employer should be liable, generally speaking.

The employee could take some photographs from various angles, to include photos of the car damage. If he brings those photos into FLAC, he may get another opinion on liability.

234

Though the hypothetical employee's own contributory negligence in not securing the gate in windy conditions, where is has presumably familiar with the gate and how it react in windy weather, should be taken into account.

Hey Folks,

That's all grand. I just thought I'd ask. Not entirely sure the employer showed and real negligence, but the employee (it's not me) was saying it to me as he's a bit annoyed about it (understandably so) and wasn't sure if it was worth mentioning it to the management of the store or not (management aren't in the store all the time).

He was curious to see if he mentioned it would he get anywhere (even pay something towards the cost).

From what I understand/seen, the gates have sections drilled into the ground so they can't be pushed/blown open etc. when they're closed, but when the gates are open, they have nowhere to be 'mounted' (for lack of a better word). The ground is gravel so with a gust of wind they blew closed. I suppose it's just bad luck, then, really.


Ah well, live and learn. At least I can say I asked (and show him the thread).

Cheers gents

Pat Mustard

Deleted User wrote: »

From what I understand/seen, the gates have sections drilled into the ground so they can't be pushed/blown open etc. when they're closed, but when the gates are open, they have nowhere to be 'mounted' (for lack of a better word). The ground is gravel so with a gust of wind they blew closed. I suppose it's just bad luck, then, really.

You are saying that there is nowhere to brace the gates when they are open, so as to prevent a sudden gust of wind from causing an accident. That sounds more like bad design than bad luck.

That being the case, it may be worth your friend's while to point out the problem to his employer and see if the cost of repair can be covered.

The Mustard

The Mustard wrote: »

You are saying that there is nowhere to brace the gates when they are open, so as to prevent a sudden gust of wind from causing an accident. That sounds more like bad design than bad luck.

That being the case, it may be worth your friend's while to point out the problem to his employer and see if the cost of repair can be covered.

Pretty much, yeah.

There's a large cement brick with a hole in it, that you can use to slide the handle off the gate down into, but the block is held in place by it's weight. Despite this, the wind took it with the gate (from my understanding) and it pushed closed in a sudden heavy gust.

The other gate has no mounting/bracing point but strangely, doesn't seem to blow around as much, if at all..).

I'll say it to him tomorrow and if he does/says anything I'll keep ye guys informed. If you don't hear from me then assume he just paid for it out of his own pocket and never mentioned it. He's only working there a short while (2-3 months I think) so I think he'll err on the side of caution for fear of 'rocking the boat' and having management take a dim view to him (not something I agree with, but I understand his position).

brian_t

For the gate not to be held open securely seems to be a flaw in the design.

The store may feel that €150 is not an expensive way to find out this flaw.

Imagine if the gate had blown closed while a customer had been walking in.