Assessment of Damages

The issues

If, when visiting a shop, you stumble while examining a display of glassware and cause extensive damage, it is generally agreed that you have to compensate the shop owner if the accident was caused by your carelessness -- but how much would you pay?

The wholesale cost that the shop owner paid for the items or the full retail price he would have received from the sale of these items if they had not been damaged?

The Jewish Perspective

A. In this case the customer must pay the full retail value of the items that he broke, not just the wholesale cost. Similarly, any time a person damages an item that belongs to his friend, he must pay compensation the full value of the item, usually the amount it would cost to replace it in a local shop. This is so even if the owner of the item actually purchased it at a deeply discounted price or received it as a present.

B. If several shops in that area sell the same items at different prices, the amount payable is the lowest retail price charged to ordinary members of the public in that area. Instead of paying compensation, it is permitted to buy an identical replacement item.

C. A shopkeeper cannot demand that a customer replace damaged items and must therefore accept the value of the item as at the time of its breakage. Accordingly, if the damaged item was used, only its value as a used item need be paid even though the shop will not be able to obtain an identical item for that amount.

If the damaged item is still partially usable, or can be repaired, only the amount by which that item has been devalued, or the cost of repair, are payable. In such a case the shop would retain the damaged item but has no right to demand that the customer keep the damaged goods, replace them with new goods or pay for such replacement.