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damage from parking barrier spike

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poor volvo

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Oregon

My wife pulled in to a parking space that has a concrete barrier or curb at the end.
The concrete barrier is held in place by 2 steel rebar spikes, one at each end.
The spikes are supposed to be pounded down below the level of the concrete.

When she went to back her car out, the plastic lip under the front bumper hooked one of these steel spikes and it pulled the front bumper cover half off.

She drove home to show me what happened and i went to investigate the next morning.

The parking area was poorly maintained and almost all of these parking barrier spikes were sticking above the surface of the concrete to some degree.
It was not possible to see these spikes sticking up from inside the car,
only upon close inspection and at a level angle.

I filed a claim to the liability insurance company of the property owner.
They denied the claim saying that my wife was at fault because she hit a stationary object that she would have seen if she was paying attention.

It was impossible to see the spikes unless she got out of the car and looked for them.
They also claimed that the property owner didnt know of the hazard and had no other complaints about it.

I find this very hard to believe because it is obvious by their condition that they have been hit many times before.

Please keep in mind that i am not talking about the concrete barrier, just the steel spikes sticking above the barrier.
My wifes car clears concrete barrier curbs without a problem.
It is a full size Volvo station wagon.

Has anyone had a similar issue that resulted in a successful claim?
thank you
jeffWhat is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?
 


justalayman

Senior Member
I have to agree with the lot owner:

They denied the claim saying that my wife was at fault because she hit a stationary object that she would have seen if she was paying attention.
when you pull into a parking space, you are at least 15 feet or so from the end of the space. That perspective would have allowed her to see the spikes.

The lot owner is not responsible for the bumper height of a car.
 

poor volvo

Junior Member
were the steel spikes supposed to be sticking above the concrete?
no.

were the curb barriers installed properly and maintained properly?
no.

is it the property owners responsibilty to do so?
yes

it was absolutely NOT possibe to see the spike from inside the car while pulling in to the parking space.
the damage occured when she backed out and at that point the car was over the spike and also impossible to see.
the spike was not supposed to be sticking up above the surface of the concrete.
 
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justalayman

Senior Member
=poor volvo;2082139]were the steel spikes supposed to be sticking above the concrete?
no.

were the curb barriers installed properly and maintained properly?
no.

is it the property owners responsibilty to do so?
yes
do you have an installation manual that requires this? Do you have some authority that states they MUST be installed subgrade?

If not, then there is no improper installation possible.



it was absolutely NOT possibe to see the spike from inside the car while pulling in to the parking space.
the damage occured when she backed out and at that point the car was over the spike and impossible to see.
the spike was not supposed to be sticking up above the surface of the concrete.[
then she wasn't looking where she was pulling in to. If the spikes were out that minimally, I suggest the bumper scraped on the curb stop as well. As I said before, the lot owner is not responsible for the bumper height of your car.
 

You Are Guilty

Senior Member
To make it clearer, replace "parking barrier" in your question with "wall" or "infant" and maybe you'll see why you're not winning a lawsuit for this.
 

Zigner

Senior Member, Non-Attorney
The easy solution to this is to file a claim with our own insurance company.
That, or file a small claims suit against the owners of the lot...
 

poor volvo

Junior Member
a wall or an infant would have been seen.

a tiny piece of steel sticking up a half an inch above the concrete was imposible to see.
 

poor volvo

Junior Member
what if a kid was balance walking along the top of the concrete barrier with no shoes on and the jagged metal post went a half inch in to the bottom of his foot?

would it be the kids fault because he didnt see the metal spike?

i dont think so.

what is the difference?

the spike was not supposed to be sticking up and creating a hazard to cars and people.
 

justalayman

Senior Member
a "kid" falls under an entirely different catagory in the legal world. Are you inferring your wife has the mind of a child?:eek:

Hope she doesn't read this thread.
 

poor volvo

Junior Member
doesnt matter how old the person is, kid or adult.

if they were injured by the spike, it would be the fault of the property owner
but if a car is damaged by the spike, it is not the property owners fault?

what is the difference?
the spike was not supposed to be sticking up.
 

justalayman

Senior Member
=poor volvo;2082524]doesnt matter how old the person is, kid or adult.
Yes it does. It makes a world of difference.

if they were injured by the spike, it would be the fault of the property owner
but if a car is damaged by the spike, it is not the property owners fault?
Not neccessarily. Do you get to sue when you cut yourself with a razor in the morning? Dang those things are sharp. I guess since the manufacturer made them so sharp, they should be liable for your cuts.

what is the difference?
the spike was not supposed to be sticking up
Again, where is your official installation guide that states how these things are supposed to be installed? Don't have one?

Then be careful and tell your wife to get a measuring stick so she doesn;t do this again.
 

ecmst12

Senior Member
If a person was stupid enough to be walking in a parking lot with no shoes on, and stepped on the spike, yes that person would be 100% at fault.
 

Zigner

Senior Member, Non-Attorney
OP - maybe you missed the correct answer:
The easy solution to this is to file a claim with our own insurance company.
That, or file a small claims suit against the owners of the lot...
 

You Are Guilty

Senior Member
I'm going to try one last time, if only because this may stop someone else from posting such a silly question in the future.

In order for liability to arise here, at the minimum, there needs to be the usual four requirements of negligence: duty, breach, causation & damages, in that order. So let's start with duty.

Does the landowner owe a duty to people parking in its lot? Yep. They are business invitees (at least during business hours, otherwise they could be trespassers). One caveat is the store owner may not be the owner of the parking lot - very frequently the parking is owned by a separate entity.

Breach. Now, this is where we start having problems. Despite the OP's personal believe that the rebar in the barriers needed to be countersunk, personal beliefs don't count. Unless the raised rebar was a violation of a statute, code or ordinance, you'll never get past this step. (And for the sake of argument, even if it was a violation, then you have to prove that the owner either installed it that way themselves, or that they knew of the improper installation, yet another high hurdle).

Although that's where the analysis stops here, for the sake of future posters, lets try causation. Uhoh! Looks like we have an even bigger problem here - the proximate cause of this accident was the driver striking a stationary object. Unless the object being hit is invisible (not "hard to see", actually invisible), the law holds the driver responsible for "seeing what is to be seen". You can't ignore what is in front of you, run it over, then blame the thing you ran over.

And finishing off this line of thinking, we have damages. Are there any? Apparently. But since they were caused 100% by the driver, that leaves 0% to be paid for by the landowner. Class dismissed.

OP, feel free to sue if you want, but the above reasoning is why you will lose. You should still be covered under your own insurance however, as they don't take into account the driver's own negligence when paying comp claims.

(Of course, I know you won't listen to any of us, so please post the name of the court and the index/docket number of your lawsuit once you file it so we can see for ourselves when you 'prove us wrong'. Thanks.)
 

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