It was one of those newspaper articles that made me go: Seriously? Garage owner Chad Rankin is appealing a court decision that found him to be responsible for an accident involving two teens in 2006.
The teens, who had been drinking and smoking pot, trespassed onto Rankin’s property and stole a car that had been left at the garage. The driver had never driven before and ended up crashing the car leaving his passenger with horrific head injuries.
The injured passenger, who was fifteen at the time, sued the driver, the driver’s parents and the garage owner for negligence. And won!
The court placed most of the blame on Rankin, saying people entrusted with motor vehicles “must assure themselves that the youth in their community are not able to take possession of such dangerous objects.”
The rationale was if the garage owner hadn’t left the car unlocked with the keys in the ashtray the teens wouldn’t have been placed in a dangerous situation.
The garage owner was found to bear 37% of the blame while the teen who stole the car was only assigned 23% of the blame.
The Word of God tells us that ultimately our sins will find us out and at that point it will be all about grace and not about blame.
Have a great week and remember: To see what is really possible, you will have to attempt the impossible.