motor breakdown whose liable?

NeptunesMoon

my mate and i were talking about the following situation

sole trader gets somebody to do some work for them which involves driving a car belonging to sole trader, insured in business name and the car put as business expence etc from dublin to cork and back, when in cork the car shows a warning light, driver checks to best of their knowledge what the light is warning about but all seems normal. continues to drive back to dublin and 10 miles from the office the car brakes down and needs repairs costing 2k. problem deffo wouldn't have happened if it wasnt drivin after light coming on. driver never phoned owner to tell of warning light so owner never had chance to intervene call mechanic for educated oppinion, give go ahead to continue driving or whatever may have been. owner completely unaware of warning light which never came on before. imagine driver is being contracted so invoicing the sole trader for work rather than an employee

my mate was saying that in such a situation although the driver may be morally responsible and should in moral foot the bill that if such a situation went to court the sole trader wouldnt win because theyve no evidence but he said if it was in court outside of business context like judge judy just two friends one borrowing a car from another that the owner of the car would stand a much better chance of getting the repair costs back

why would the two situations be any different and who would most likely end up having to pay the bill in each?

FreudianSlippers

Insurance company.

NeptunesMoon

cheers but this is a hyperthetical situation so imagine it was say 500 quid damage, and imagine the excess on insurance was 500 quid so no point dealing with ins comp.

NeptunesMoon

thought id resurrect this to see what people think.

another point to take into consdieration, if the driver has a full driving license, should this assume that they are aware that warning lights in a car should indicate a problem which should be adressed?

remember this isnt a case for insurace, imagine the excess on policy would be more than the cost of repairs for example.

BrianD

Should have rung the gaffer, told him the light was on, what it means according to the manual (if available) and advise what to do next.

Seth Brundle

What was the warning light? What colour was it (orange tends to mean caution and get thee to a mechanic ASAP whereas red means stop driving)?

NeptunesMoon

say it was the oil warning light and imagine they checked the oil level and it appeared ok but there was another issue causing it to come on but because they saw the level was ok they continued to drive and not notify owner.

NeptunesMoon

any more thoughts on this?

camphor

Obviously not1