Liability for Other Individuals

Sometimes a situation occurs where a person is liable for another person's injuries although he did not actually cause them. For example, the owner of a vehicle who knowingly loans his car to a drunken friend who then has a car wreck may be liable for injuries caused to another person involved in the wreck. The drunken friend's liability is imputed to the car owner. This type of liability is known as vicarious liability.

Third-party liability often occurs in commercial settings. For example, an apartment complex that failed to provide proper lighting at night might be liable to a tenant who was mugged in the dark parking lot. A software company might be sued under this theory if a computer game it manufactured resulted in a player violently attacking another person.