A garage owner's liability for damage to a car in his hands

A question about a car at a repair shop that moved while the owner of the shop was starting it and hit another car, in which Jordan's General Iftaa Department answered that the garage owner is a common hired worker liable for what is damaged in his hands, and the car owner owes nothing unless the damage came from an accident that could not be guarded against. ¹

The questioner said his car was at a repair garage; while repairing it, the garage owner tried to start it and it suddenly moved and struck another car, causing damage. He asked whether liability falls on the garage owner or the car owner. ¹

The Department answered that craftsmen such as carpenters, tailors and those who maintain vehicles are called common hired workers by the jurists, since they take work from more than one person, and that they are liable; this is the Hanafi school and one view among the Shafi'is, and article 611 of the Majalla states that a common hired worker is liable for harm arising from his act whether or not he transgressed or was negligent. ¹ It quoted al-Babarti in al-Inaya, his commentary on al-Hidaya, explaining that holding the common worker liable is a juristic preference of the two companions of Abu Hanifa to protect people's property, since he accepts many items out of desire for more pay and may be unable to guard them all. ¹ It noted that this liability is bound by three conditions, quoted from Ibn Abidin's gloss: that the worker could have prevented the damage, that the item was handed over to him, and that the thing is of a kind that can be guaranteed by contract, so a human being is not. ¹ It concluded that once the car owner hands his vehicle to the garage owner it enters the garage owner's liability, so he is liable for everything damaged in his hands as a common hired worker, and the car owner owes nothing unless the damage arose from an accident that could not be guarded against. ¹

Jordan's General Iftaa Department published this fatwa on aliftaa.jo as no. 4025, dated 1 December 2025. ¹ The museum records this text as a historical document attributed to the body or scholar that issued it; it issues no ruling of its own.