Does Graves Amendment Apply to Courtesy Car Loaners? – Legal & Legislative

The federal Graves Amendment, passed in 2005, protects automobile rental and leasing organizations from getting held financially dependable for injuries induced by their clients until it can be verified that the firm’s possess carelessness or steps contributed to these accidents. While the law has constantly applied to protect retail rental and leasing firms from vicarious legal responsibility, the regulation has not been regularly utilized in conditions of vendor “loaner” or “courtesy” cars, as evidenced by modern instances in Florida. 

The courts have wrestled with the concern of whether there is consideration exchanged (fulfillment of a contract) when a dealership gives use of a loaner or courtesy vehicle. Some courts have located there is thought and for that reason the dealership is protected by Graves other courts have arrived at a distinctive conclusion. 

In 1 Florida situation, the court docket held that the Graves Modification safeguarded a dealership from currently being monetarily accountable for the act of its buyer. In Thayer v. Randy Marion Chevrolet Buick Cadillac, LLC, 519 F. Supp. 3d 1062 (M.D. Fla. 2021), aff’d, 30 F.4th 1290 (11th Cir. 2022) a customer took a car or truck to a dealership for service and the dealership gave the buyer a loaner motor vehicle. The customer wounded yet another specific when driving the loaner motor vehicle.

The query introduced to the courtroom was no matter whether the loaner vehicle would be thought of a rental or a lease for purposes of the Graves Amendment application, and no matter whether the dealership could be held responsible for the harm brought on by its shopper. The Thayer Court seemed to an earlier case, Collins v. Auto Associates V. LLC, 276 So. 3d 817 (Fla. 4th DCA 2019), which identified the Graves Modification was relevant in the situation of a loaner, but contained small examination as to why the Graves Modification applied.

The Thayer court docket consequently stated that the loaner vehicle would qualify as a rental when “in trade for use of a auto, a bash provides some form of thing to consider.”

Thing to consider is “bargained-for exchange” which means that both equally get-togethers obtain anything that they’ve agreed to, ordinarily anything of value for some thing of price. It could be argued that the “consideration” is that the purchaser agreed to fork out for support to a auto, and in trade, the purchaser been given use of the loaner vehicle.

The court held that thought existed mainly because (1) the vendor approved the auto for servicing (2) the customer agreed to pay the charge of repairs (3) in exchange for people repairs the purchaser received use of a loaner vehicle and (4) that the seller would not have otherwise loaned the motor vehicle experienced the buyer not agreed to fork out value of repairs.

Differing Conclusions

The details in a different Florida case, Romero v. Fields Motorcars, Inc., 333 So. 3d 746 (Fla. 5th Dist. Ct. App. 2022), were being mostly related, but the Courtroom concluded the opposite of Thayer and Collins. In Romero, Mr. Abriola was driving a complimentary loaner automobile attained from Fields Motorcars after he experienced taken his individual truck, which he experienced purchased from Fields, back to Fields to have warranty perform carried out on it.

The court identified that thought did not exist, consequently the Graves Modification did not utilize to defend Fields from the personal injury induced by Mr. Abriola. Importantly, the settlement between the customer and Fields in Romero explicitly mentioned that the “Agreement is only for the reason of developing a bailment which permits Customer to use the Auto . . . .”

When a rental or lease of a vehicle require not be in creating for the Graves Modification to use, this language built it much easier for the Florida courtroom to determine that the loaner car or truck was a “gratuitous bailment” (or mortgage with no thing to consider) and so not lined by the Graves Modification.

The Romero court mentioned that a complimentary loaner car or truck is not a rental or lease the place: (1) no money or other thought is determined by the events at the time of the transaction (2) where the purported lessee was not produced mindful he was coming into into a lease and (3) exactly where there is no indicia of a lease agreement, oral or published.

Fields has asked the Supreme Court docket of Florida to weigh in on the circumstance, but the Supreme Courtroom of Florida has not however granted Fields’ petition for discretionary assessment.

At the very least 1 other point out, New York, took the very same situation as Romero. In 2008, soon after Graves was enacted, Zizersky v. Existence Excellent Motor Profits, Inc., 21 Misc. 3d 871, 866 N.Y.S.2d 501 (Sup. Ct. 2008) located that the place a vehicle is offered to a consumer by a dealership when the customer’s vehicle was staying serviced was a loaner motor vehicle with no thing to consider, somewhat than lease or rental subject to Graves Modification. So, the supplier could be held accountable for accidents brought on by its shopper.

A Statutory Correct

The conditions propose that the courtroom will seem to whether or not there was adequate thought to determine no matter if the business delivering the loaner vehicle really should be subject to Graves Modification protection.

Notably, Florida implemented a statutory fix to the “Romero-problem” in 2020 when it enacted Fla. Stat. § 324.021(9)(c)3.a. That statute prevents motor auto dealers, or their leasing or rental affiliate(s), from being held liable, vicariously or instantly, for supplying a temporary, no-demand replacement car or truck to a “service customer whose vehicle is currently being held for fix, service, or adjustment” unless of course they had been normally negligent or fully commited prison wrongdoing so long as the business (1) executes a published rental or use settlement (2) obtains a duplicate of the individuals’ motorists license and (3) verifies valid insurance. Notably, the concern however exists in Romero for the reason that the statute was not enacted to use retroactively to prior scenarios — the statute took effect on July 1, 2020. Romero was a 2015 incident.

Use Published Agreements   

Even though there are superior arguments for why Graves ought to utilize to courtesy vehicles, it is vital that providers providing a courtesy car bear in mind to overview the applicable state law and consider using a published arrangement that references the consideration remaining exchanged. Although a composed agreement is not determinative, it might assistance with an argument to a court with regards to the application of Graves.

About the Author: Amber Simon is an legal professional with Polsinelli and is a member of the firm’s Mobility & Vehicle Use Practice.