Court orders Irkutsk woman to pay for damaged rental car

An Irkutsk woman must pay a businessman more than 1.1 million rubles (about $12,000 at current rates) for a wrecked rental car. She tried to shift the blame onto her ex-husband, but the court did not believe it. Details of the case were published in the database of the Irkutsk Regional Court.

According to the case materials, a rental agreement for a Kia Rio was concluded between an individual entrepreneur and the woman. She received the car via a handover protocol. Some time later, the lessor learned that the car had veered off the road, broken through a fence, crashed into a house, and then overturned. The accident was not officially registered — there was no second party involved. The renter left the car at the scene and later reported the incident by phone, but refused to compensate for the damage.

An independent examination showed that the cost of restoration repairs exceeds 1.3 million rubles (about $14,000 at current rates) and amounts to more than 90% of the car«s market value. The court concluded that repairs were economically unfeasible. Taking into account the value of usable parts, the damage was determined to be 1.1 million rubles (about $12,000 at current rates).

The district court partially granted the entrepreneur«s claim: the defendant was ordered to pay the amount of damage, expenses for the examination, legal representative services, postal costs, and interest for the use of someone else»s funds. The woman must also pay a state duty to the budget.

In the appeal, the defendant insisted that her ex-husband was at the wheel at the time of the accident, who allegedly took possession of the car without permission and fled. However, the court noted that at the time of the accident, she was the legal owner of the car under the rental agreement and was responsible for its safekeeping. No evidence of theft was presented. The Irkutsk Regional Court upheld the decision of the Irkutsk District Court.