Can I sue a dealership for crashing my car on a test drive?

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Can I sue a dealership for crashing my car on a test drive?

A couple weeks ago my father brought our car into the dealership to get something in the engine checked out. English is not my father’s first language, so when they brought him papers to sign he did and went on with his day thinking that every time he brought his car into the dealership to get something checked, nothing would happen. This time, a couple hours after dropping the car off, my father got a car from the dealership telling him that our car was crashed when they brought it out for a test drive. My father went into the dealership demanding for something to be done about this but the dealership did nothing to help him. They took full advantage of my father and just ran this over his head. Can I sue the dealership for negligence or something of that nature?

Asked on November 26, 2016 under Accident Law, Alaska

Answers:

SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney

Answered 7 years ago | Contributor

You can sue whomever was at fault (e.g. driving negligently or carelessly) in causing the accident for the cost to repair if the car can be economically repaired, or for its then-current "blue book" or fair market value if it could be repaired on a cost effective basis. (To oversimplify: the court should be repaired if the repair cost is less than its value; it should be "totalled" otherwise.) 
The key is, only someone at fault is liable. So if it was a one-car accident--the dealership employee ran it into a tree, a fence, a pole, a parked car, etc.--then the dealership and its employee are both liable. (The careless driver, the employee, is liable for his careless driving; and the dealership is liable for the careless acts of its employees committed during work.) If however another driver ran into the car while the employee was driving carefully, you could only sue that other driver.


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