Can a Vehicle Owner Be Sued for an Accident If Someone Else Was Driving?

You may be able to sue a pocket deeper than that of the driver who caused the accident.

If you are involved in an accident with a driver who is uninsured or under-insured, you may want to consider suing the vehicle's owner. This is only allowed under limited circumstances, most commonly under the theories of negligent entrustment and respondeat superior (Latin for "Let the master answer").

Negligent Entrustment

An owner of a vehicle may be liable for a car accident in which he was not involved if he allowed someone to drive his vehicle despite knowledge it would likely be driven in an unsafe manner. To prove this, you will have to show that the driver had a history of unsafe driving and that the owner of the vehicle knew about his history of unsafe driving.

Respondeat Superior

An employer may be liable for an accident caused by her employee when the employee was operating the vehicle within the scope of her employment. This theory of liability does not apply when the employee is using the employer's vehicle for his own purposes, so you will have to prove that the employee was driving for the employer at the time of the accident.

No Owner Liability

The owner of the vehicle must have some relationship with the driver to be found liable for the accident. An Iowa court held in the case of Carton v. General Motors Acceptance Corp. that General Motors was not liable for an accident involving a vehicle owned by GMAC even though it had obtained but not pursued a court order requiring that the car be returned to General Motors.

References

• The Judicial View: Accident Victims Must Sue Car Driver, Not Owner/Lessor GMAC
• FindLaw: Vicarious Liability and Negligent Entrustment
• Accident Attorney Car: Negligent Entrustment and Car Accidents
• Ragland Jones LLP: Respondeat Superior Liability