My car was damaged in a grocery store parking lot by a runaway cart. Is the store liable?

Question

My car was damaged in a grocery store parking lot by a runaway cart. Is the store liable?

Answer

Liability of the store depends upon several factors which you do not mention. Did the cart roll down an incline from a cart area that was not well designed to retain the carts, was the store aware of people leaving carts in a position that they could roll down the incline, how long had the cart been in the lot before it hit you. did one of its employees start the cart rolling, etc. You need to show that the store failed to do something that the average person would have done in the circumstances to prevent the accident.

Answer

Mr. Shers is correct. The short simple version of what he said is: it depends on how the cart came to be a runaway, and whether the store is at fault for that causation. The store is neither automatically liable, nor free from liability.

Answer

I agree with the previous responses. You would have to show that the store was somehow negligent, and that this negligence caused the cart to strike your car. This appears to be difficult, because the store has a lot of intervening people, and it sounds as though some third person (customer) was irresponsible.