Legal Question in Civil Litigation in California
Contingent Liability?
My daughter took her daughter and one of her daughter's friends horseback riding in Monterrey over a year ago. My granddaughter's friend was thrown from her horse and hospitalized for two weeks. Her parents subsequently sued the rancher providing the horses to recover medical expenses. Prior to the incident the rancher did not provide nor did my daughter sign any legal disclosures or any waiver absolving the rancher of any liability should an accident occur.
It appears now that the rancher is suing my daughter to recoup the losses they undoubtedly anticipate experiencing when they lose the lawsuit that was filed against them to recover medical and legal expenses. They assert that because my daughter did not disclose to the rancher that her daughter's friend's medical history ( she apparently has athesma and mild scoliosis) that that constitutes some sort of negligence on her part so she bears the burden of the liability.
Question: Is my daughter in any way legally liable for the losses the rancher may suffer as the defendant in the earlier lawsuit.
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Contingent Liability?
Unfortunately, she may be. The important preliminary question would be: under their negligence theory, what duty did your daughter have to disclose your granddaughters friends medical history to the ranch? Sometimes a duty may arise out of a business relationship, so this will become very fact defendant. I would argue that no duty to disclose existed, however, you will need to aggressively defend this from the onset. If you would like to schedule a free consultation with our office, please feel free to contact me.
Yours truly,
Bryan
877.201.8728
Re: Contingent Liability?
Left out of your question is the rancher's theory as to how this alleged failure to disclose related to the accident. Did asthma or scoliosis have any cause-effect relationship to the fall from the horse? Even assuming (without admitting) there was a duty to disclose, how is this relevant to the accident?
I would agree that the rancher should have a problem establishing that your daughter had a duty to make such disclosures--did she even know about them herself? Did the rancher ever ask about the physical abilities/disabilities of the girls? I would think that there would be no problem, unless your daughter knew of these health issues, was asked about them, and deliberately lied about them.
Nevertheless, if a suit has been filed against your daughter, she should seek legal representation. Hopefully, she has homeowner's or renter's insurance with coverage for personal liability. If so, she should report the lawsuit to her insurance company right away. The insurance company should provide legal representation to defend against the claim. If she has no insurance coverage, she should hire a lawyer in her community to represent her.
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