My teenager daughter H, carrying a bag containing her clothes, school calculator and her mom's small laptop, left the bag right on the floor behind my car to rush to do some other stuff.
As I was reversing my car in the garage to get it out, my wife stopped me right when she noticed that the rear right tire was crushing the bag. I moved forward so that they retrieved the soft bag and no apparent damage was noticed at that time as the bag was also full of clothes.
But upon arrival here, we noticed the extent of the damage: the screen of the laptop is cracked from the inside, and the calculator has a dark patch right in its middle. This is an expensive TI graphic calculator, worth about $120. The laptop is worth about $260.
The question is: who is responsible for the damage and who should pay for it? It is:
1- The driver who could not see that a bag was put right behind the wheel of the car
2- H who should have secured the bag elsewhere
3- H's sister N, who called her to rush to something else before H had time to secure the bag.
4- Shared responsibility between the driver and H?
The reply to this is not really easy to get, I might need to seek the help of our Imam for the ruling of this. However, for the time being, I managed to find the following on Islam QA, regarding the destruction of property. As per the reading of it, H looks to be the one responsible for the damage, even if it was not intentional, because she left the bag in a place that was not supposed to be put, and Allah Knows Best.
If any reader has a different information he/she could share, then it would be most welcomed here...
Update 24/08:consensus reached, it will be point 4 above, i.e. shared responsibility between me and H.
Here is the article from Islamqa.com/13634 link:
Rulings on destruction of property
Question 13634 : What is the ruling in a case where a person destroys the property of another? Does the ruling differ according to whether that is done deliberately or otherwise?
Praise
be to Allaah.
Allaah has forbidden aggression against
people’s property and taking it unlawfully. He has prescribed that whatever is
destroyed unlawfully is to be replaced, even if it is destroyed by mistake.
Whoever destroys the property of another person which was sacred (i.e.,
protected by sharee’ah), and destroys it without the owner’s permission, is
obliged to replace it.
Imaam al-Muwaffaq said: “We do not know
of any dispute concerning this matter. It is the same regardless of whether
that was done deliberately or by mistake, and whether (the person who destroyed
it) was told by someone else to do it or not. The same applies if he causes it
to be destroyed, such as if he opens a door and causes something which was
locked up to be lost, or he tilts a vessel and allows what is inside it to flow
out and be lost – he is obliged to replace it. The same applies if he loosens
the reins of an animal or ties it up, and it gets lost or dies – he has to
replace it. The same applies if he ties up an animal in a narrow street, resulting
in a person stumbling over it and dying or being injured as a result – he is
responsible for that because he transgressed the limits by tying it up in a
narrow street. The same applies if he stops his car in the street resulting in
another car or a person hitting it, causing harm – he is responsible because of
the report narrated by al-Daaraqutni and others, which says that whoever makes
an animal stop in the way of the Muslims or in one of their marketplaces, and
it steps with its front or back leg on something – he is responsible. The
same applies if he leaves a pile of mud or some wood or rocks in the street, or
he digs a hole and that results in a passer-by being killed or injured, or he
throws a melon rind or similar thing into the street, or spills water and
someone else slips on it and is killed or injured, the one who did that in all
cases is responsible, because by doing that he was transgressing. How
lightly these matters are taken nowadays. How often holes are dug in the
streets and the way is blocked, and they put obstacles in the roads, and how
much harm and damage results from these actions, without anyone watching over
such matters and putting them right, to the extent that a person may take over
the entire road and use it for his own purposes, annoying and causing harm to
passers-by, and not caring at all that he may be sinning by doing that. Another
of the cases in which a person is held to be responsible is if he keeps a
vicious dog and it attacks a passer-by or kills someone – he is held to be
responsible because by keeping this dog he was transgressing. If he digs
a well in his courtyard for his own purposes he is held to be responsible for
any harm that this may cause, because he is obliged to maintain it in a manner
that does not harm passers-by. If he leaves it without taking proper care of
it, then he is transgressing. If he has livestock he has to take proper care of
them at night to prevent them from damaging people’s crops; if he leaves them
and they do damage someone’s crops, he is held to be responsible for that,
because the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon them)
decreed that people who have property must take care of it during the day, and
whatever is damaged at night, they must be compensated for that.” (Narrated by
Ahmad, Abu Dawood and Ibn Maajah). So the owner of an animal is not held to be
responsible any damage that was done during the day, unless he sent the animal
near a place where it could do damage. Imaam al-Baghawi (may Allaah have mercy
on him) said: “The scholars said that whatever is destroyed at night, the owner
(of the animal) is held to be responsible for that, because customarily the
owners of gardens and orchards guard them during the day, and the owners of
livestock guard them at night, so whoever goes against that practice has gone
against what is customary. This applies if the owner of the animals is not with
them; if he is with them then he is held to be responsible for whatever damage
they did.”
Allaah mentioned the story of Dawood and
Sulaymaan concerning this matter, as He said (interpretation of the
meaning):
“And (remember) Dawood (David) and
Sulaymaan (Solomon), when they gave judgement in the case of the field in which
the sheep of certain people had pastured at night; and We were witness to their
judgement.
And We made Sulaymaan (Solomon) to
understand (the case); and to each of them We gave Hukm (right judgement of the
affairs and Prophethood) and knowledge…”
[al-Anbiya’ 21:78]
Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyah (may Allaah
have mercy on him) said: “The text of the Qur’aan praised Sulaymaan for his
understanding that compensation meant replacing it with something similar.
Pasturing the sheep at night means taking them out to graze at night, which
took place in a vineyard. Dawood ruled that the value of what had been
destroyed should be paid in compensation. He thought that the sheep were equal
in value to the destroyed crops, and he wanted to give them to the owner of the
cultivated field. But Sulaymaan ruled that the owners of the sheep were obliged
to pay compensation, and that they should repay in kind, by tending the field
until it was restored to its former state. He also took into account the
benefits that would be lost whilst the field was being restored, so he ruled
that the owners of the garden were to be given the livestock and that they could
take what the produced until it was equivalent to the produce of the garden.
They could benefit from the produce of the sheep in place of the produce of the
garden which they had lost. He found that what the sheep produced during this
period would be equivalent to what the garden would have produced. This is the
knowledge which Allaah gave exclusively to Sulaymaan and for which He praised
him.”
If the animal is under the control of a
rider or of a person who is leading it or driving it, then he is responsible
for any damage that it may cause with its front legs or mouth, but not for any
damage that it may cause with its back legs, because of the hadeeth, “There is
no compensation for the back legs.” According to the report of Abu Hurayrah,
(the hadeeth is), “There is no compensation for the back legs of a dumb
animal.” The animal is described as dumb because it does not speak.
Compensation here refers to compensation for damage done by the animal.
Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyah (may Allaah
have mercy on him) said: “In the case of every dumb animal – such as cattle,
and sheep – there is no compensation for damage done by the animal if it did it
by itself (i.e., was not under the control of anyone), such as if it ran away
from the person under whose control it was and it did some damage. No one is
obliged to pay any compensation, so long as it was not vicious and its owner
was not being negligent about restraining it at night or keeping it away from
the markets and gathering-places of the Muslims. More than one of (of the
scholars) mentioned that there is no compensation to be paid if the animal had
escaped and was going by itself without anyone leading it or driving it, except
in the case of savage animals.”
If it attacks a human being or another
animal, and the only way of warding it off is by killing it, and it is killed,
then there is no obligation to pay compensation, because it was killed in
self-defence, and defending oneself is permissible. So he does not have to pay
compensation for the consequences and because he killed it in order to ward off
its evil; if he killed it in order to ward off its evil, then the attacker is
the one who has killed himself.
Shaykh Taqiy al-Deen said: “He has to
defend himself from the one who is attacking him, and if he can only do that by
killing him (the attacker), then he has the right to do that, according to the
consensus of the Fuqahaa’”.
Among the items for which there is no
obligation to pay compensation if they are destroyed are: musical instruments;
crosses; vessels for wine; books of misguidance, myths and promiscuous
material, because Ahmad narrated from Ibn ‘Umar that the Prophet (peace
and blessings of Allaah be upon him) told him to take a dagger then they both
went out to the market of Madeenah in which there were wineskins that had been
brought from Syria. (Ibn ‘Umar) tore them open in the presence of the Prophet (peace
and blessings of Allaah be upon him) spilled their contents, and he commanded
his companions to do likewise.” This hadeeth indicates that it is required to
destroy them and that no compensation for that is due. But their destruction
must be done on the authority of the ruler and under his supervision, so as to
protect people’s interests and avoid mischief.
From al-Mulakhkhas al-Fiqhi
by Shaykh Saalih ibn Fawzan Aal Fawzaan, p. 133
