Legal Question in Personal Injury in Iowa
I want to file a lawsuit claim on a dodge/ chrysler dealership for a major malfunction on their fault, but I really don't have the extra money to waste if I don't have a case. My husband and I own a 2005 dogde durrangoo and there was recently a safety recall for an oulet vavle/gas tank, the recall stated to take our durrangoo to the nearest chrysler dealership and have it check out at no cost and if it feel under the recall to have it fixed at no cost.
I make an appointment to have to looked at and sure enough the part that was under recall was bad. I make another appointment to have the gas tank replaced, i take it there and two hours later my husband and our 23 month old daughter and myself go to pick it up adn I noticed the smell of gasoline really strong didn't think anything of it because it just got a new gastank I just assumed thta it would smell of gasoline a little,anyway when we dropped off our durrangoo it had a 1/4 of a tank of gas in it when we picked it back up it had under an 1/8 of a tank of gaoline in it. I call the dealership and asked what their rules or regulations were on that type of situation the man that answered the phone said sorry but everyonne has left for the day call back in the morning. I said okay I will do so. Then we started off out of town towards home which is about 20 miles away and we got about ten miles out of town our durrangoo looses power and we have to pull to the side of the road. The lady that we had just pasted pulled over also and got out of her car and said that when we pasted her the smell of gas fumes coming from our truck was so strong that it started to make her sick to her stomach and that there was gasoline spraying out from under our durrangoo. My husband then calls the dealership back and the onwer anwered the phone my husband explained what had happened and the owner said that he could come get us (because we were on the side of the highway with our little girl and there was no shade it was 90 degrees out) and give us a car to drive, tow our durrangoo back to the dealership and see what the problem was. So about 15 or 20 minutes later the owner picks us up and takes us back to drop him off at the dealership and we head back out of town towards home. They had our durrangoo towed to the dealershiip and the next day my husband calls over to see what the problem was, and the dealership told was that the main gasoline line had wiggled loose because it wasn't connected to the new gas tank that they had just replaced. They fixed it we went back over to pick it up and they did put 1/4 of a tank of gaoline back in our gas tank and that was that. I think they should be held responsible for their actions, I know that the gas line just didn't wiggle loose they didn't take there time and double check their work they were in a hurry to get home for the day and so on and so forth. If any spark at all would of occured then my little girls and my husband and myself could of burst into flame and whom ever was driving in front of us or behind us, It is a bunch of crap and it was a total inconvince for us, that of easliy resulted in a very serious accident. Like I said I think something should be done someone should be hels accountable but I don't have the extra money to just be wasting on a lawyer if I don't really have a case, Can you please help me with some legal advise whether or not you think I have a case to build and win
2 Answers from Attorneys
The question is, how were you damaged and how much that was worth.You can't collect a windfall based on speculation and what-if scenarios no matter how dire. It sounds to me as if they fixed your car. Maybe you don't believe it but you would have to prove that they did something negligent and that you were damaged as a result.
I agree with Robert's conclusion although I might say it a bit different. What were your damages? If we were allowed to obtain damages based on what-if's then the defense would also be allowed to use what-if's. Like what if you were struck by lightning on the way home and never made it? See what-if's never work with the law of personal injury. Reality, real facts and what actually happened are what the courts deal with. Let's give the dealership credit for doing what is right and standing by their work.
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