Re: Parking lot vandalizing
A bailment is the delivery of an item of personal property from one party to another with the understanding that the property will be returned to the owner. When your car is parked by a valet, you have created a bailment.
When a motor vehicle is left in a garage or parking lot, the relationship between the garage operator and the vehicle owner may be one of bailment, lease, or license, depending upon the circumstance of each case.
Generally, a bailment is created where the operator of a garage has knowingly and voluntarily assumed control, possession, or custody of the vehicle; if the operator has not done so, there may be merely a license to park or a lease of a parking space. As a bailee for hire, the garage operator is bound to use reasonable care in safekeeping the vehicle.
Some courts reject the bailment analyses in parking lot cases and find that whether the garage owner is liable for damages or not depends on all the circumstances and whether the damage or loss was foreseeable i.e. vehicles have been repeatedly vandalized on prior occasions and no steps have been taken to prevent this from happening.
Parking lot stickers or tickets that limit liability are generally rejected by courts under the theory that there is no true assent to these terms on the back of a ticket on behalf of the customer.
Relating to cars parked and stolen from commercial parking lots, the law of bailment generally applies to these cases. The owner of the car is the bailor, and the owner of the parking lot is the bailee. The parking lot has a duty to exercise care during its custody of the car. If the parking lot does not exercise care and is negligent, the parking lot is liable to the car owner for any damage due to the failure to redeliver the car. The parking lot must prove it exercised care in its custody of the car. This is the background law that would apply in the absence of contract when a person parks his car in a parking lot and the car is stolen or damaged.
