On Operators' Duty Of Care To The Safety Of Consumers' Vehicles Parked In The Consumption Sites

Operators of consumption sites usually offer parking services for the consumers who drive to the consumption sites.When the vehicle is damaged,the two parties usually dispute over whether the operator is held liable for the damage compensation.At present,such disputes are mainly regulated by the Contract Law,Law on the Protection of the Rights and Interests of Consumers,and Tort Law.The discussion of this issue focused on the legal nature of the parking services with different opinions.The reason why courts can't reach an unanimous verdict on this issue is the disagreement about whether the operator is under duty of the vehicle safety protection,the nature of the duty and the practical standard of identifying the duty.This paper sorts out the operator's duty of the vehicle safety protection and the liability of the breach of the operator.This paper consists of four parts.The first part mainly illustrates the practical dilemma of operators undertaking the duty of care to the safety of consumers' vehicles parked in the consumption sites.By sorting out the facts of cases and the verdicts,it can be concluded that the reason why courts can't reach an unanimous verdict on this issue is the disagreement about whether the operator is under duty of the vehicle safety protection,the nature of the duty and the practical standard of identifying the duty.The second part mainly distinguishes the operators' duty of care to the safety of consumers' vehicles.This paper holds that operators shall take safety protection duty to the consumers' vehicles in the process of negotiation or performance of the consumption service contract,if the consumer follows the direction of the operator to park the vehicle in the field that the operator can manage and provide services.The source of the duty can be categorized to three kinds,one is safekeeping duty based on safekeeping Contract.The second one is the vehicle safety collateral duty based on consumption service contract.The last one is statutory security duty.However,there is no material differences between the operators' vehicle safety collateral obligation and statutory security obligation when applied to these disputes,so this paper just study the liability of breach of contract in terms of collateral duty.The third part discusses the liability of breach of duty of care to the safety of consumers' vehicles.First of all,the liability of violating safekeeping obligation under safekeeping contract is analyzed.On the basis of identifying paid or unpaid safekeeping contract,the liabilities of damages for breach of contract in these two conditions are discussed.Then,the liability of vehicle safety collateral duty owing to violation of consumption service contract is analyzed.The liability of violation of collateral obligation is essentially a kind of liability for breach of contract.Presumption of fault principle is applied in violation of vehicle safety collateral duty,and operators assume the burden to prove that they have performed reasonable duty of care in trade.The scope of damages mainly includes inherent interest,but damages shall not limited to performance interest.The forth part intends to analyze the effectiveness of exception clause instead of being taken invalid.Whether the exception clause has been a part of the contract should be identified first.There would be no sense to identify the effectiveness of the exception clause if it is not included in the contract.Then,if operator performs the disclosure duty to remind consumer of the clause,the effectiveness of the clause should be identified under different condition.