It’s Wal-Mart’s Fault
I thought we had put the car accident in our past, but a couple letters last week brought it back to the forefront of our minds. There are some big developments actually.
First, Betsy got a subpoena to testify in a case of the City of Evans vs. Eliza Hill. We were surprised to learn that Eliza is claiming that she wasn’t responsible for the accident. Whatever. Betsy will tell her story and it will be interesting to see how things turn out.
Then yesterday we got a letter from Eliza Hill’s insurance company. They are not going to pay Betsy’s injury claim. They said, “It has been determined that Nationwide Insurance Company is not liable for this accident. Therefore, we will not be making any payments to you for bodily injury or property damage.” Then comes the good part, “It has been discovered that Walmart was the cause of this accident due to negligence by the employee that was performing work on our insured’s vehicle prior to this accident. Please contact Walmart’s claim representative to proceed with your claim.”
So this is what appears to have happened: Eliza went to Walmart to get her car looked at. She left Walmart and according to Eliza’s sister, they pulled over because the car’s gas peddle was sticking. Eliza started driving the car again, the gas peddle stuck, and she ran a red light hitting three cars.
I would assume that the trial is now going to involve Walmart. I am not the judge, and I obviously don’t know all the facts, but it seems to me that Walmart isn’t completely liable for this accident. Eliza clearly recognized that there was a problem with her car because she pulled over before the accident. Eliza became liable for the accident when she got in her car knowing that there was a problem. She was negligent because she didn’t honk or try stopping when she reached the intersection. That is negligence despite the failure of Walmart to fix Eliza’s car. It will be interesting to hear what the judge says.
(Update September 14, 2006)
I talked with Wal-Mart’s insurance and the filled in a few more clues. Eliza went to Wal-Mart to get her oil changed. She alleges that the person who did the work forgot to put the oil cap back on. The cap became wedged against the throttle. The plot thickens.
