Campfire Time wrote:
Terryallan wrote:
And that NEVER happens. First the trailer in question would have to be weighed at the scene to prove it was over weight. Not a good way to do that. Second. manufacturer's weight ratings are NOT law. they are warranty limits only. Auto makers do not write law.
And as has been asked on this site a million times. Give a real world example of someone being sued because their TT was too heavy. There are none.
And My brother's wife's brother's friend had a friend that had a friend that knew a guy who had a brother who knew a guy who got sued. That don't count. Has to be first hand knowledge
You brother's wife's brother's friend's friend must have told you that it never happens. This isn't rocket science, if you don't understand how civil suits work, then you don't get the reality of what we're talking about here. Fact of the matter is that it happens more than you think. Most civil suits are settled out of court and never see a judge which is why you rarely hear about them.
Moreover we're not talking about criminal law here. Civil liability has nothing to do with "law". They are about willful negligence and do not require the same level of proof as a criminal case. Civil suits only have to show probable liability and if brought to a jury only require a majority of the jury to agree on a verdict. This is the reason most are settled outside of court.
In the case of towing beyond your rated capacity any lawyer would have a field day with that. It's not illegal for a fast food joint to serve scalding hot coffee either. But someone sued over this issue and won. The case of an overweight trailer is cut and dry and quite obvious. No jury is going to side with you because you say "lots of folks on rv.net tow overweight". All they will see is that the manufacturer said "Do not exceed xxx # of pounds". And lawyers well know this.
I'm a lawyer and I used to practice at an insurance defense firm, so I know a bit about bad drivers and bad doctors and how these cases tend to work.
My take on the civil liability angle is that it depends on the situation, but in the RV world towing a reasonable amount overweight is generally going to be a non-issue unless you're way over.
For one it's going to be difficult for a plaintiff to accurately prove what a travel trailer weighed at the time of the accident - it isn't like a load of pavers where it's easy to fix the weight by matching up a receipt.
Second, the plaintiff would need to not only accurately establish that the trailer was heavier than the manufacturer weight ratings, but would also need to establish that exceeding those ratings actually caused the accident and injury. That would take a lot more than Matlock whipping out a copy of the payload sticker in front of a shocked jury.
The reality is these cases involve a multitude of factors on both sides and almost all of the time they settle. It's possible that being overloaded could be one of the factors in play, but it would be very unlikely to ever be a deciding factor in fixing liability or damages and frankly in most cases I don't see it being a particularly important factor. Again assuming the bad driver is at least within the realm of reasonable behavior with what he's towing.
Just my two cents.
