I have a general question regarding bailments, and the waiving of responsibility.
When you park your car in a privately owned parking lot, you automatically agree that you agree NOT to hold the owner responsible for damage to your vehicle. In prectical terms, suppose an employee of the parking lot moves your car, and in the process, damages it.
Is the parking lot owner completely off the hook?
As with many legal questions, it depends on which US state you’re talking about.
In many states, such waivers of responsibility are not even upheld as being valid at all. Basically the argument is, a parking lot is in the business of taking care of your car. Therefore they cannot waive their responsibility to take care of your car.
And even in states where the general waiver is mostly allowed to stand, the parking lot is still held liable for actual acts undertaken by an employee. Otherwise, by precedent no business would ever be liable for any act of its employees because they could just post a generic waiver.
(standard disclaimer of my not actually being a lawyer apply, as this is the internet and I am, in fact, a dog)
A lawyer once told me that if I park my car myself and take my keys away with me, I’m on my own. If I give my keys to an attendant, the lot is accepting a degree of liability for what happens to the car. This was in Illinois about 30 years ago. I suspect the answer will vary pretty widely by location.