Legal Question in Consumer Law in Virginia

Re: who's liable for damage to my car while at shop

The shop might well be liable but more proof is likely to be required in the form of an expert opinion as to the likely or proximate cause of the fire and beyond the mere fact that the car was in their possession for an oil change.(One area, of course, that should be thoroughly explored is what exactly were the shop personnel doing with respect to your vehicle at the time the fire started?)

Re: who's liable for damage to my car while at shop

Absolutely, although my colleague is right that nearly all of these cases come down to what you can prove, not the theory or legal rights in the abstract. It is not so important WHY you think they should pay as WHAT you can prove actually happened. Neverthless, there are three legal theories: (1) breach of contract. You brought your car to them to repair and maintain it with an oil change, not to set your car on fire. As professionals in car maintenance, they did not perform a competent job of performing an oil change. They breached the contract. They did not return your car to you plus one oil change. Because peforming an oil change without setting the car on fire is part of the JOB you asked them to do, they breached the contract to do an oil change in a professional and competent manner. (2) Negligence. Whatever you may think, this is the most normal grounds for recovery. This covers a huge range of situations and is the legal theory for almost all lawsuits other than breach of contract. One is not normally responsible just because. The issue is "negligence." That is why my colleague says you may have to bring in an expert (who can be anyone with on-the-job experience as a car mechanic) to testify that if one does a careful and competent job of doing an oil change, a car would not be set on fire. The expert would have to prove through testimony that there is no way the car could ignite in the PROTECTED space of a specially-designed car shop, designed for the purpose of doing oil changes safely, unless the mechanic is negligent. That is the key problem -- proving (not just suggesting) that the fire was caused by someone's actual NEGLIGENCE, not by an unavoidable accident. (3) A "bailment." This is hard to explain to a non-lawyer. However, when you give your car to a valet to park, the valet is responsible to return the car to you in a reasonably decent condition. There are three kinds of bailments: For the convenience of the owner. For the convenience of the bailee (shop). Or equally for both. The degree of responsibility varies. Here, the shop took custody of the car for the equal convenience of both. SO the standard of responsbility is not the highest level, but setting a car on fire would not satisfy reasonable care in taking care of the car in one's custody.