Legal Question in Criminal Law in District of Columbia
accident liability
On February 24, 2009 my daughter who is 20 and a minor in the District of Columbia accepted an invitation from a young man 25 years old. He offered to take her for a ride around town. (Washington DC). At the time he picked her up, my daughter and another friend noticed that he was visibly drunk. He also had a bottle of brandy in the car which he offered to her and she accepted. He drove around town while they both drank. Finally he had had too much to drink and he pulled into a parking lot. He got out of the car and threw up. My daughter got concerned and asked to be taken home He started out of the parking slot and asked him to stop and said that he was too drunk to drive. He stopped the car, leaving it in drive. He opened the drivers door and ran around to the passengers sideand got in. My daughter scooted a cross to the drivers seat never leaving the car. The car was in gear when she got in the drivers seat and it was moving forward. She stopped the forward motion of the car by hitting the brake. In the space of time that it took to stop the car, be somehow got pinned between two cars and is now in a coma. What are the liabiliy issues here?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: accident liability
He "somehow got pinned between two cars and is now in a coma", you say, and are naturally concerned about your moderately intoxicated daughter's possible liability in the matter.
DC (as far as I am aware)stills adheres to the doctrine of contributory negligence which essentially holds that if a victim of an alleged act of negligence contributed to it even in a minuscle manner, the tortfeasor-perpetrator, i.e., the person mainly responsible for the negligent act, is "off the hook", so to speak, in terms of her liability (which would appear to be your daughter in this case) and the victim cannot recover any damages for his injuries. However, your daughter, nonetheless, would be well advised to consult with an attorney for a confirming opinion on this issue who handles personal injury matters in the District of Columbia.
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