A question of liability - Houston, TX
A strange ruling... From
Austin News 8:
Houston not liable for falling traffic light
A family who was the unlucky victim of a falling traffic signal won't get any car repair help from the city of Houston.
That's because state law exempts traffic signals and lights from liability.
The city rejected a claim for reimbursement submitted by Lei Zheng and his wife, Hua Yang, stemming from last year's freak accident.
Yang and her four-year-old son were on a shopping trip when the signal fell through the windshield of their Volkswagen Passat. Neither was seriously hurt.
The couple's insurance company paid their claim and they had the car fixed.
But the couple wanted the city to reimburse their insurance deductible and some out-of-pocket medical expenses, totaling less than $2,000.
The city notified Zheng that it was immune from such claims.
Zheng says it's unfair, but the city says it's just following state law.
Christ on a corn-dog -- they were asking for less than $2K. If I were him, I'd spend a couple hundred on a lawyer just to shake the city down a little bit -- Houston should have paid their request without blinking. Surprised that their insurance company isn't also going after the city -- after all, it was city property that malfunctioned and caused the damage.
Posted by DaveH at September 10, 2007 4:19 PM