Car damaged by driveway construction

[TheScales]

This might belong in the General Torts forum, but here goes. My girlfriend's sister (who rents a home from a landlord) formerly had a 'driveway' that was in terrible disrepair. There might have been asphalt or concrete previously because along with the dirt and gravel, there were broken bits of concrete and asphalt. She informed her landlord of her desire to hire someone to construct a paved surface for her vehicles. The landlord said it would cost too much and would prefer to do the job himself. Between Christmas and New Year's Day he told her he would complete the job, but after initially laying soft dirt on the driveway in mid-December and another layer just before Christmas, he never returned to put gravel down (despite her expectations of having a paved driveway). Naturally, she parked her vehicle in driveway both because she needs a place for her cars and the landlord didn't tell her she couldn't park on the dirt. It wouldn't have ruined the construction he was doing. In the past 3 or 4 days it has rained a bit here in the Inland Empire and when she and her husband went outside to drive their car for some errands, they saw that the driveway had turned entirely into mud (but that seems intuitive, given the rain that has fallen). When they tried to move the vehicle, the wheels spun and the car dug itself into the mud. Then the car slid into a concrete wall adjacent to the driveway, damaging the paint on that portion of the car and, I believe, some of the body of the vehicle. My question (finally!) is this: Can the landlord be held liable for the damage done to the vehicle? His construction seems both negligent and at this point temporarily abandoned since he has not returned to finish the job he started before Christmas and promised to have completed before the new year. Thanks to all for any input you can provide.