Damage by Delivery Truck

[Brett]

What is the name of your state? MI

We had fill dirt delivered and the truck cracked our concrete driveway. What legal recourse do we have?

 

[xylene]

What is the name of your state? MI

We had fill dirt delivered and the truck cracked our concrete driveway. What legal recourse do we have?

What legal recourse do you expect?

What did the trucking comapny say?

Who installed your driveway and did they guarantee any particular load bearing capacity?

 

[Brett]

The truck backed into the driveway and stopped where the driveway is now cracked and came up to the house to ask my wife to sign their contract which states the company is not liable for damages. My wife, not able to see from the house that the driveway likely was already cracked, signed.

The company says that since the contract is signed they are not liable. It is our word against theirs regarding the truck backing onto the driveway before receiving a signed contract.

Ideally I'm hoping to get repairs covered completely. As a compromise I'd be willing to share the cost. I want to know if there is any legal recourse I can use as a bargining tool.

The home was built 50 years ago and we aren't the original owners so I don't know who put the driveway in. I do know that water and sewer were installed which required the driveway approaches be redone in the neighborhood. The approach is what is now cracked. This work was also done before we purchased the home also.

 

[fairisfair]

okay, so the concrete is 50 years old to begin with.

What were the instructions to the delivery company?? If any. In other words, where did you tell them to put the dirt??

 

[divgradcurl]

The truck backed into the driveway and stopped where the driveway is now cracked and came up to the house to ask my wife to sign their contract which states the company is not liable for damages. My wife, not able to see from the house that the driveway likely was already cracked, signed.

The company says that since the contract is signed they are not liable. It is our word against theirs regarding the truck backing onto the driveway before receiving a signed contract.

Ideally I'm hoping to get repairs covered completely. As a compromise I'd be willing to share the cost. I want to know if there is any legal recourse I can use as a bargining tool.

The home was built 50 years ago and we aren't the original owners so I don't know who put the driveway in. I do know that water and sewer were installed which required the driveway approaches be redone in the neighborhood. The approach is what is now cracked. This work was also done before we purchased the home also.

If you signed away liability, chances are you aren't going to get anywhere with the trucking company. They don't know what the load-bearing capacity of your driveway is any more than you do, so it's not really fair to hoist the liability on them, that's why they have you sign the contract.

BTW, this is pretty common -- anytime I've had something heavy placed in my driveway, be it a garbage dumpster or dirt, I've had to sign a similar liability waiver.

 

[Brett]

okay, so the concrete is 50 years old to begin with.

What were the instructions to the delivery company?? If any. In other words, where did you tell them to put the dirt??

The concrete is not 50 years old. The section that cracked was redone apporximately 10 years ago when City water and sewer was installed.

The Driver parked on the driveway before we signed the contract.

 

[divgradcurl]

The Driver parked on the driveway before we signed the contract.

Can you PROVE that? If so, you might have a case.