traffic driving vehicle motor-vehicle
Responsibility for causing damage to someone else&#39;s car when there is no collision
<p>In order to avoid collision with the driver of a car who made a wildly optimistic illegal left turn, I had to push my brake pedal all the way to the floor and stop far more suddenly then one would in any non-emergency situation. But I barely avoided collision. After that my brakes didn't work well and required depressing the pedal all the way to the floor to get less deceleration than one normally gets from quite moderate braking. It turned out a brake line in my ancient car (circa 20 years old) had sprung a leak from the high pressure in the line during that incident.</p>

<p>Is the other driver responsible for any of the costs of repair?</p>

<p>The reason an at fault driver is liable for damage in a collision is due to the tort of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negligence" rel="nofollow noreferrer">negligence</a>.</p>

<p>To be liable under negligence <em>one</em> of the many factors that the plaintiff (that's you in this case) must prove is that the damage you suffered was a reasonably foreseeable consequence of the defendant's (that's the U-turner) acts or omissions. This is where your case would fall down: a collision is a reasonably foreseeable outcome, damage to your braking system in normal operation is not reasonably foreseeable given that an emergency stop is something a breaking system should be able to do.</p>

<p>This is simply a maintenance issue.</p>
