Unauthorized towing - What are my rights?

[pmenefee]

After a weekend of camping with the wife, we stopped by my in-laws Saturday evening to pickup the kids and return home. It is roughly a 2.5 hour drive back to our place. About 30 minutes into the return trip I noticed the temp. gauge on the car start to climb.

I pulled into a station there on the side of the road. Go out and raised the hood. It was apparent that the car was not going any farther. I called a towing company close to my home. They said that they were booked for the weekend, but would be out Monday. I went in and asked the clerk if it would be alright to leave the car there. She said 'yes' and directed me to a space. I told her it would be there till Monday. No problems.

They show up Monday as planned and there is no car. It had been towed, by the store owners request. The store clerk denies I was ever in the store, and that I said nothing to her. The manager on duty said the car had been there since Friday.

The store manager, who actually placed the call had not been in since Wed. She said she had no idea how long it had been there.

Summary
The situation is my car has been impounded. I made arraingements to leave it at the station. The towing company that took it told the company I hired that they would not release the car (they were not the owner) and that they only take cash.

I need to bring this to some resolution. It appears to me that the parties trying to resolve this are going to get stuck with the bill. My towing company, for driving out there, and myself for pay for two tows and storage. All because the management at the gas station was very disorganized.

 

[Michael Wechsler]

This is a difficult issue to try to find an answer. It would probably be found in agency law -- whether the owner of the store can be held liable for the act of an employee. Frequently the answer is in the affirmative but possibly not so in this case.

It seems that this case is a small claims case where you may end up suing the garage owner for damages due to the unauthorized tow and for other damages resulting (although probably not time and pain will be awarded). You should argue that the station attendant was an employee of the owner and, as such, had the actual and apparent authority to allow you to leave your car at the station.

The other side will probably answer that a person who pumps gas obviously doesn't have the authority to allow you to leave your car in their station for 2 full days. It should also have been apparent to you that an attendant doesn't have the ability to tell you that you can leave a car in their lot for that long at the expense of their business and storage space.

I'm not saying that this was nice, but did you leave them with your information such as a telephone number? Two days is a long time to leave a vehicle on someone's property. I would probably have gotten a receipt of some sort to leave it for that long a period or made sure to check up with the station every day at least once to speak to someone to make sure there were no problems. Eaiser to see and say this in retrospect.

If the owner changed his mind and had the car towed, the situation would have been completely different.