Liability for the Layman. The term “liability” has survived in the English vernacular for some years now. Its common usage has rendered it in the minds of many as yet another mundane facet of “lawyer-talk”— a simple enough concept inflated by legal jargon. Even I admit to often falling into this line of thinking. However, the other day I came across an article which caused me to reconsider.
As I sometimes do, after work last week I found myself reading online legal literature, this particular occasion at TennesseeMotorVehicleAccidentsBlog.com. I came across a rather interesting article from a firm in Knoxville, Tennessee (see credits below) regarding a horrific accident which occurred in their area. A local woman driving in a wooded area late one afternoon was allegedly crushed by a tree falling from private property, killing her on the scene. Officials lamented the ‘freak accident’; it took two hours to remove her body from the rubbish.
While usually private property points a stern finger at those liable, a number of intricacies smear liability’s black and white façade. Apparently, weeks before the accident occurred, the owner of the property called the City of Knoxville, complaining about the tree and asking that it be removed. Officials inspected the tree, saw no immediate danger, and obviously did not remedy the problem. The city went on to note that the tree would have been a bigger priority if the property had been abandoned. And to further tangle the issue, firefighters were unable to determine whether the tree was dead or alive, a measure used to determine if the owner is at blame.
So who’s to blame? I think the driver’s hands are the only ones clean. This accident was the unfortunate result of a long string of mistakes and mishaps. Allow me to emphasize that this case was in no way legally extraordinary: the gray area of liability is more apparent but by no means larger.
Read the original article here: http://www.tennesseemotorvehicleaccidentsblog.com/2011/12/if-a-tree-falls-on-your-car-who-is-responsible.shtml
Original article written on behalf of Pryor, Flynn, Priest & Harber
