Liability for Breaking Store Merchandise and How to Calculate Payment
Question
Hi,
I was in a shop and there were beautiful crystal vases on the shelf. I turned around a little too quickly, didn’t notice one of the vases, and I accidentally hit it. It fell and smashed. I was told by my Rav that I am liable however I am not sure how to calculate the damage?
Answer
Thank you for your question.
How to calculate an item being sold in a shop:
Since we know that every product in a store has two prices. There is the wholesale price, which is what the owner paid for it. And there is the retail price, which is what he sells it for. Sometimes the difference can be very big, even fifty percent or more.
So, do you need to pay only what he actually lost, meaning what he paid for it? Or do you need to compensate the owner the money he could of earned by selling it to a customer?
Moreinu HaGaon Rav Amram Fried shlit”a writes in Azamra Lechem siman 321 that when a person damages merchandise in a store, he must compensate the owner according to the price that the owner could have sold it for. Meaning, the retail price.
Why? Because that is considered the true value of the item in that place. In a store, the value of the vase is the selling price. That is what it is worth in the marketplace at that moment.
So in your case, whatever price the shop was selling the vase for, that is the amount you have to pay. (In a case that the shop owner had gained money from not having to pay expenses which he would have had to pay had he sold the product, that amount would have to be deducted from the retail price)
The source to this chiddush is from the Gemara in Bava Metzia 99b, and it is brought down in halacha in Choshen Mishpat siman 304 se’if 5.
Calculating the True Value of a Used Item
The same idea applies in another common case. For example, if someone damages a second-hand or used item that you borrowed from a friend, and by mistake you broke it so how do you calculate it’s worth?
Hagaon Harav Amrom Fried shlit”a writes that we do not look at its current market value, since sometimes the market value of such an item is very low, much lower than the actual benefit and use that the owner was getting from it. So, looking only at the resale value does not always reflect the true worth of the item to its owner.
Therefore, in order to be fair to everyone, the proper way to evaluate it is as follows. We calculate how much the item cost when it was brand new. Let us say it cost $1,000, and its normal lifespan is ten years. That means that each year of use is worth $200. According to that calculation, we determine how many years the person already used the item, and at the time of the damage we calculate how much of its lifespan remained. That remaining portion represents the true value of the item at the time it was damaged.
This approach is based on the Chazon Ish in Bava Kama, siman 6, who explains that we do not base the payment on whether the item could have been sold or not, since the market value does not always reflect that, especially when the item still serves an important purpose for its owner.
For example, if someone ripped another person’s shirt, ruined his shoes, or broke his glasses, we know that glasses generally cannot be resold. But that does not mean they have no value. On the contrary, they have very significant value to the person who uses them. Therefore, the correct method is not to look at resale value, but to assess the original cost and divide it according to the expected lifespan of the item.
Wishing you very well.
Source
- Azamra Lechem, siman 321
- Bava Metzia 99b
- Shulchan Aruch, Choshen Mishpat 304:5
- Chazon Ish, Bava Kama siman 6
