Legal Question in Personal Injury in California
I scraped the side of my car against a flower pot positioned at the end of a pumping bay at a gas station. The gas station is private property. The flower pot was very low and very wide. It was impossible to see from the driver seat. No effort was made on the part of the gas station to make the flower pot visible. It was not brigthly painted to draw attention to it. Nor was it made visible at a reasonable height with either tall plants or or a stick or a flag. Also, it was a very tight space to drive away from the pump. Do I have any recourse against the gas station? Do they have a responsibility to make the flower pot visible?
3 Answers from Attorneys
Yes they do, but you have a duty to observe all hazards around your vehicle. Presumably it was visible as you approched the pumping bay from the street. Bottom line is there is probably some percentage of negligence on both sides. So do you really want to sue, or do you just want to let your insurance company deal with it? Personally I think the answer is obvious.
The gas station will say that you were negligent for not knowing where you are driving. What if this flower pot was a child, or a person in a wheel chair. You must know where you are directing your vehicle. You could lose and have to pay for the damage to the flower pot.
You also have to look at how long the flower pot was there and how many other cars drove by it without a problem. I agree with Mr. Marman that this would be a difficult case to win.
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