Court rubbishes Beersheba over damage to car

By MIRIAM BULWAR DAVID-HAY (TRANSLATED)
The Beersheba Small Claims Court has ordered the city of Beersheba and its garbage removal contractor to pay a man NIS 10,300 for damage caused to his car by a large garbage container, reports www.mynet.co.il. A judge found that the car was damaged by the negligence of the contractor, who after emptying the large dumpster replaced it carelessly, crushing the car against a wall, and then drove away without leaving any details for the hapless car owner. According to the report, the man parked his car one morning in a public car park in Beersheba near two large dumpsters before heading off for work. Upon his return that afternoon, he was dismayed to find his car crushed between one dumpster and the car park wall, with damage worth "thousands of shekels" done to the vehicle. He complained to the city, but when it rejected his complaints, he decided to sue. In court, the city claimed that the man had contributed to the incident because of the way he had parked, and that the damage to the car was pre-existing and had not been caused by the container. The garbage contractor also denied that the container had caused the damage and said it was the man's duty to prove that the company had been responsible for it. But the judge ruled that the car had indeed been damaged by the garbage container, "which was placed negligently by the driver, who instead of leaving his details chose to flee." The judge ordered the company and the city to pay the man NIS 10,300 for the repairs to his car, as well as NIS 601 for the valuer who evaluated the damage and NIS 500 in legal costs.