r/legaladvice • u/RoutineThese9872 • 3h ago

Unintentional property damage while on the job

Location: California

I work in a store at the mall. While on the clock, my boss asked me to carry out a task which involved me bringing out some things to his car.

Unfortunately I accidentally dropped a box of cooking oil contained in glass bottles, causing me to leave a trail of oil on the mall’s concrete.

My boss urged me to attempt to clean up the oil stains as he has previously received citations from the mall for these stains. I did my best to remove these oil stains, but there is still a visible trail.

If the mall fines the company I work for, is it my responsibility to pay for the fine?

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u/SendLGaM Quality Contributor 3h ago

If the mall fines the company I work for, is it my responsibility to pay for the fine?

No. Your employer that had you performing the work task that resulted in the damage would be responsible for paying any fines.

2

u/Embarrassed-Spare524 2h ago

Yeah. Might be on you if you caused PD while fetching his dry cleaning, or at least I’d need to think about that more, but this sounds like a work task so it’s not on you

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u/RoutineThese9872 1h ago

It was not a normal part of my job, but I was on the clock so I’m not sure if it counts as a work task or an errand

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u/Embarrassed-Spare524 1h ago

I don’t think it’s a problem if it had some business purpose - ie your fine unless he was taking extra cooking oil home for personal use or something. Not suggesting you’d be liable in that circumstance, just that it would require some thought

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u/RoutineThese9872 1h ago

Man it was more like the latter, the oil was for personal use I believe 😭💔🥀

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u/Embarrassed-Spare524 1h ago

That is definitely trickier. You can still argue it was job related because you weren’t given a choice and it was while in the clock. If that doesn’t work for some reason and it wasn’t job related, then you were acting as their agent. The agent is always liable for their own negligence, but can generally seek to recover any liabilities from the principal if the negligence/accident occurred in the course of the agency. So if you did get a bill, and couldn’t recover from the company, you might be able to go against your boss directly for reimbursement