Who's really at fault?

I would say the carpenter 70% / electrician 30%. If there is any reasonable place to park away from falling debris an experienced construction tradesman would avoid the potential hazard. When we were building our house the roofers dropped a roll of 90 pound roofing onto the roof of my carpenter's truck. Then they disappeared and I paid to have the roof fixed, which the carpenter used on crank instead.

BT

 

Driver's fault for parking in a place where it was reasonably certain that something could damage it. It is not uncommon for things to fall of scaffoldings; that is why hard hats exist. Contractor was aware of the inherent danger of parking near the scaffolding, but chose to anyhow.

 

I agree.

 

Electric sub's fault.. unless he was parked there temporarily to move some large piece of equipment he should've realized that sh*t happens.

I don't get anywhere near scaffolds for this very reason, he should be thankful it wasn't his noggin that is now sporting a dent.

 

I think the carpenters fully at fault. No law states you can't park near a scaffolding. Lets say it was a worker walking by the scaffolding, and got pelted in the head, are they responsible?

Stupidity is parking a car in the way of moving traffic. Or parking 2 ft behind a crane. I don't see any shared responsibility here. "If not for the fact" that the hammer dropped, the car would not have been damaged.

Parking next to a scaffolding is perfectly ok. In fact, when we were rehabbing our building, we had a scaffolding on the city sidewalk, and cars parked right up to it. We could not legally tell cars NOT to park there. If we were worried about debris, and we were, we put up netting, and a sidewalk cover/protector. The netting extended OEVR the parked cars. Thankfully, nothing happened...

 

Drivers fault 100%.

Ummm, they wear hard hats for falling debris...right?

EDIT: Can we add a pole?

 

Giving this the careful consideration any question Uro asks, (yawn) I have come to this conclusion...........

Uro is totally at fault and should pay for emotional damages for both the electrician and carpenter. Though if he uses the N word then he needs to pay Sharpton too.......

Uro, here is the non-official, non-attorney represented answer:

The carpenter did it and he should pay for damages. Though it might be prudent not to park a car near a hazard, if there are no signs to the contrary then it would be reasonable if someone causes damages they would pay for them. A reasonable person would not expect a carpenter to loose his hammer. In fact, I've seen harnesses for tools to attach to a belt just so this doesn't happen. Something a professional would have, perhaps? Further, I don't think the electrician should get worked up over this as accidents do happen..... The carpenter did the right thing.

Now don't walk in any water next to this electrician.......

 

So if a worker were passing by the scaffolding, looked up, and got his face decimated, that would be the victims fault?

We wear seatbelts too. So if a drunk driver hits me, its my fault because I should have stayed off the road?

Interesting...how intelligent folks can disagree...

 

Poll

 

Yes, people should wear hard hats and steel toed boots and eye protection..... possibly hearing protection too. But you'd be surprised how many don't. Though you should realize that using protection in no way changes who is at fault for an accident. Though it might keep you alive or out of the hospital.

If the carpenter knew that he would be throwing items off the roof then he should have roped the area off and posted danger signs and maybe had a man below to guard the area. But, the carpenter just lost a tool..........oooops. Thankfully it wasn't the electrician he hit.

 

Remember the premise of the question... see below...

IMHO, if you park next to a scaffold at a construction site you are much more likely to have something fall on your car. IMO, it's common sense...

Would anyone here park their ferrari next to a scaffold with workers present? I doubt it.

 

Yup 100%


Things get dropped on a job site even when proper precautions are taken. Everyone that works at one knows that and there is a protocol for everything you do to prevent being hurt. He did not take that precaution when he parked there. If a person on the crew set up a work space there, to say cut studs to size for the carpenters, that man would not work for me again. He is an accident waiting to happen. I will not employ people like that in my auto repair shop and I would not on a construction site. Stupid people get hurt. Stupid electrical subs get their car hurt.

 

I park my new Toyota truck WAAAAAAAAAY over there!!

*pointing*

No SUV though, it has crank up windows, 4 cyl, 5 spd........OK, I did spring for an A/C and floor mats....

My project has precast 40' high concrete plank walls, if one of those comes over it's gonna fall a looong way!

That was just dumb to park there, what ..his legs don't work or something??

Before I could even get my paper tags off I watched in the rear view mirror as some lady panic braked, skidded, changed lanes and missed my rear bumper by inches......sigh.....I gotta put that axe handle back under the seat....

The point is Fleet Trucks are listed as 'consumed tools" on the balance sheet.......

 

I think that the electrician used poor judgement in parking beside the scaffolding, but it's still the carpenter's fault that he dropped his hammer. Man-to-man, if I'd have dropped the hammer I would have paid for the damages.

 

Carpenter's fault. His hammer, his damage.

 

The Man-to-Man fault? Site Supervisor/Developer

Not establishing safety zones for work crews and parking instructions.

 

Let's add some hypothetical situations to the story. Suppose the dropped hammer had hit the dirt right beside the contractor's SUV as he was stepping out of the truck. The contractor reaches down to pick up the hammer and notices that the hammer had hit something metallic in the dirt. Contractor scrapes away the dirt to discover an old metal box that had been buried at the site 100 years earlier. He opens the box and it is filled with gold coins.

Do you think the contractor will now say that the falling hammer was the fault of the carpenter, and that he will gladly hand over the gold coins to the carpenter because it was the CARPERNTER's fault that the box of coins was discovered?

I think not. The damage was the fault of the contractor because he parked too close to the scaffolding in a known construction zone where objects are known to be falling. Why do you think they wear hard hats?

 

Horsefly you are mixing property law and tort law there for a false hypothetical. There are completely different standards that apply when getting injured and when finding treasure trove.

The answer is the carpenter.

I know this isn't what you asked for, but the carpenter - per the other responses here - is trying to use the Assumption of Risk defense, that the electrician knew sites are dangerous and accepted all risk by parking there. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assumption_of_risk However, I do not think this defense would stand.

 

Agreed........

Now, if the carpenter had posted a sign that said, "Danger - Falling Hammers", then he might have a case.

 

Stated just like a lawyer.

Common sense has no place in their world.

 

What if the carpenter fell off the roof? Should he have put up a sign saying "Danger - Falling Carpenters"?

Man-man and not legal system, electrician put his car in a stupid place and bears at least partial fault.

 

Explain the common sense in dropping a hammer on someone's car and not expecting to be held responsible?

 

Now...if this were the medical profession :

Responsible parties include:

1) The hammer manufacturer and all subsidiaries
2) All heirs of the above
3) The plantation farm from wherein the wood hammer handle was made
4) Anyone who participated in the manufacture of the hammer head (designer, metallurgist, little boy Pablo who stepped upon the mountain from hence the ore was prospected, Aunt Ginnie who sold the hammer at the local hardware store...and Little Boy Blue).
5) The city, for not designating the site a high risk area
6) The developer, for waking up that morning...
7) God, in perituity, for allowing the act to happen.
8) everyone at the site - for not yelling "Duck" fast enough.
9) the truck manufacturer, for making a vehicle which inadequately avoids such forseeable events
10) The truck paint maufacturer, for not creating a pigment to deflect hammers...

The settlement is levied against all of the above, with the amount in its entirety being due from any of the above, in no way proportional to guilt or fault.

The trial will be held among a jury of peers. In this case, it is composed of 12 people on disability due to head injuries by hammer. Purely a coincidence.

The verdict will surely be 2 million plus. 300$ actual damage, $2,999,700 punitive - so that a hammer may never again fall and leave the hand of a carpenter...

 

Only one thing wrong about this post... the wink.