When one thinks of car accidents, images of local streets or highways usually come to mind. However, sometimes an altogether different scene is host to an accident. Such was the case the week in the Carolinas when a garbage truck plowed into a mobile home. While no injuries have been reported, the mobile home did suffer structural damage. This property damage, regardless of the fact that the mobile home was stationary at the time of the incident, is a basis for recovering compensation from the garbage truck company and the employee that was operating it. For the mobile home owner, a South Carolina truck accident lawyer will prove invaluable in assessing a legal claim and course of action
An Employer Can Be Held Liable For The Acts of Employees Conducting The Employer’s Business
While the garbage truck-mobile home crash is still under investigation, it will be important to determine whether or not the man or woman operating the garbage truck was engaged in garbage collecting duties. The reason this is important is because it determines whether a key legal doctrine concerning liability is applicable to incident. This doctrine, respondeat superior, allows one person or entity to be held accountable or financially responsible for the actions of another person or entity, if the directly acting person or entity was acting on the behalf of the non-acting entity at the time of the conduct in question. Typically, this chain of responsibility exists in employer-employee relationships. In it, and in legal terms, the employer is considered the “principal,” and the employee is considered the “agent.” In terms of the applicability of respondeat superior, the words “acting on the behalf of” are key. In the abstract, an agent can be said to be acting on behalf of principal if the agent is acting with the assent of the principal, for the benefit of the principal, and under the control of the principal. To bring this into real terms, the garbage truck operator could be said to be acting on behalf of the garbage truck company if he or she was engaged in the act of picking up garbage on a route assigned by the company, and for the financial benefit of the company. On the other hand, if the person operating the garbage truck at the time it crashed into the mobile home was not even a garbage company employee, and had in fact stolen the garbage truck for the purposes of a joy ride, it would be much more difficult to hold the garbage truck company responsible for the mobile home damage – especially if the company had adequate safeguards in place to prevent its trucks from being stolen.
What To Do If Your Person Or Property Has Been Damaged During A Truck Accident
In South Carolina, an automobile accident results in an injury roughly every 11 minutes. If you have been injured, or if your property has been damaged, be sure to reach out to an experienced and skilled South Carolina auto accident attorney. You may have a claim to recover compensation for past and future medical treatment, lost income from missed work, and pain and suffering.