Rental car hit our truck

[DAVE HUDSON]

#10005

In November 2021 an Enterprise rental care side swiped our rollback, roughly $35k in damages. Enterprise says it can’t be held liable that the driver’s personal coverage needs to pay. The driver has Progressive Insurance with only $10k in coverage, Progressive admitted fault and offered $7600 in a settlement. Meanwhile, it’s been over a year and our truck is still in the body shop being repaired and is supposed to be covered under our uninsured/underinsured policy.

So is it true rental car companies in this case are exempt from liability?

[Nick Porto]

#10010

Hello Dave and thanks for posting.  In most cases, it is difficult to hold a rental car company directly liable for the damages you have sustained because the Graves Amendment, which is part of a federal highway bill signed into law in 2005, bars vicarious liability claims against car rental companies for injuries caused by their customers, unless it can be proven that the company’s negligence or actions contributed to those injuries.  For example, if the car itself was defective and its defective nature contributed to the damage, it might be possible to directly assert a claim against the rental car company.

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