Legal Question in Consumer Law in District of Columbia
Car Rental Company Woes
When a car rental company customarily researched my DC driver�s license using its service connected to the DC Dept. of Motor Vehicles (DMV), the service indicated my license �was not found.� As a result, the company refused my rental and I incurred four days worth of expenses and two days of lost wages from work while dealing with uninformed and apathetic employees at the rental company and the DMV. The DMV confirmed my valid license was on file and informed me that the DMV was not responsible for the inadequacy of the rental company�s service connected to the DMV. (It was later discovered that another DC resident shared my driver�s license number).
The rental car company�s lawyer secured a car for me, but never responded to my letter listing my added expenses with receipts. Rather an employee in the office of the president reimbursed me for only thirty percent of the total expenses incurred by mailing me a two hundred dollar check in an effort to acknowledge my personal upset and inconvenience. To get full reimbursement/compensation what claim(s) should I file (e.g., relating to unfair business practices) that will be valid in small claims court?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Car Rental Company Woes
In order to prove your claim in D.C. Superior Small Claims Court, whether it be based upon a theory of a neglgent act(or omission), or some other civil wrong on the part of the car rental company, you must be able to show by a preponderance of the evidence that the company's alleged act(s) or omission(s) was the proximate cause of the loss which you incurred.
However, if, as you've noted in your question, "that another DC resident shared my driver's license's number", then, obviously, there was a problem with the accuracy of the DMV's database which the car rental company could not be held responsible for. And, therefore, if this is true the DMV's defective database would be the proximate cause of your loss and not any alleged acts or omissions which you might attribute to the car rental company.
In fact, I would say, that given the above facts and consequent analysis, that you did very well to get the car rental company "to pony up" the $200 refund which they may very well have had no obligation to provide.
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