Dear All,

During November 2005, the company rented car I was driving to reach meeting venue, while my boss- the president of the company who rented the car was sitting besides me; lost its front wheel due to mechanical failure. The car rammed into guard rail. Police came and recorded my statement and gave report of No Fault after examining the accident site. My boss also explained reason of accident to the police officer.

I am no longer employee of this company. In later developments, my ex boss had to pay a big sum on repair of this vehicle as he or company did not carry any insurance to cover the vehicle or me who was driving the vehicle for company work on his (my boss) behalf.

Recently, I am in receipt of a letter from his lawyer wherein my ex boss took a U turn from the facts. The letter, I received state that as the accident was due to my negligent driving, so I am responsible for the repair costs or else there is threat of starting a legal action. The ex boss is known among ex employees to harass and exploit his employees in the name of providing the mandatory Canadian (engineering) experience for jobs here by reducing work hours, no vacation pay kind of things.

Looking for your advice please.

Ben

Ben,
Welcome to Canada. You got to be very careful in your dealings in this country.
As far as i know, any rented car will come along with its own insurance which is included in the rent of the car. Check for the terms of the insurance. See in whose name the car was rented out to. If it was in the name of your former company or your former boss then you can try to put the blame (and rightly so) on them. Also call up the police officer and try to get a copy of the accident report. All this can only be done by a lawyer and this will involve lawyer fees.
All the best and hope that you come out of this situation at no loss to you.
TK A

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Ben,
This sounds more like an extortion attempt to me. Threat of legal action doesn't necessarily mean that anyone can arrest you. Maybe people with legal background can explain more, but in the US this would be considered as a civil suit. At this point I would probably just send a reply not admitting to any wrongdoing and pointing out that your ex-boss had given a statement to the police officer which he is now claiming to be false. In other words he lied to the police officer. The second problem for him is that the burden of the proof lies on him to show that it was a driver error and not a mechanical failure. It is not just a case of he-said, she said.
I wouldn't worry too much about this. Sounds to me that they are hoping that you will cave in to the threats and offer to pay part or full amount of the repair charges.

Regards

P.S. I am not a lawyer and I am replying on the basis of what-I-would-do-in-this-scenario. If you are really worried about this please consult a lawyer or someone with a legal background.

Dear Friends,

May be more friends on forum wants to speak but this being a legal matter are not doing so. I wish to hear from more ppl out there, accepting that these all replies will be just their views and in no way anyone will be responsible for anything for sharing his/ her views on this topic.

I take full responsibilty for following/ not following any advice posted on this thread. I need to know, how much I am safe or in how big problem I am? So anyone who can say on this topic, plz contribute your views. I am somewhat worried inspite of absolutely no fault of mine, as anyone could be under these circumstances. All favourable (or otherwise) posts will be of help to me.

Ben

Yes sir...you need a legal advice and reply for a legal notice.

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My view:

Insurance covers basically two things - one is damage to the vehicle, and secondly, costs involved if you hit a human being and he suffers physically.

While a driver can be made responsible for driving without proper insurance as per the rules of the land, and that would be done by the "Authorities", not a company which employs the driver, the repair costs for the vehicle are solely a matter relating to the insurance company and the one insured under a policy.

So the questions in your case are:

1. In whose name was the rental contract made - the company or the individual?
2. Who were the authorised drivers on the rental agreement - it could range from names of particular drivers to anyone meeting the rental agreement criteria authorised by the renter?
3. Was the insurance purchased from the rental company or not?
4. If the insurance was not purchased from insurance company, how did the person/comapny renting the vehicle cover their insurance?

It seems to me that your name is nowhere in the above questions, except may be under authorised drivers and so you need not worry. Even if your name is not under authorised drivers, it was the mistake of the person who rented the vehicle to let you drive - not your mistake in driving the vehicle.

Chandresh

sidenote: how come you also come up with a problem very similar to what TK narrates from time to time about his employer and the first one to respond to this thread is TK??

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Chandresh

Advice is free – lessons I charge for!!

Can you publish this person's name and the companies name on this forum so other CD's are aware of him.

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You know you are a desi when ........ You spew forth the virtues of India, but don't want to live there...............You've never had a tanning salon membership