Vicarious Liability For Motor Vehicle Lessors

Any person renting or leasing to another any motor vehicle owned by him shall be liable for any damage to any person or property caused by the operation of such motor vehicle while so rented or leased, to the same extent as the operator would have been liable if he had also been the owner. This liability does not apply to any person, with respect to the person's lease to another of a private passenger motor vehicle, if the total lease term is for one year or more and if, at the time damages are incurred, the leased vehicle is insured for bodily injury liability in amounts of not less than one hundred thousand dollars per person and three hundred thousand dollars per occurrence. It also does not apply to any person, with respect to the person's lease to another of a truck, tractor trailer or tractor-trailer unit with a gross vehicle weight rating of ten thousand pounds or more if the total lease term is for one year or more, or the applicable contract term is one year or more, and if, at the time damages are incurred, the loss or claim is insured by any combination of coverage through an insurer, in an amount of not less than two million dollars. (C.G.S.A. § 14-154a)

Connecticut courts to date have declined, however, to extend the reaches of §14-154a to circumstances in which damages are caused by unauthorized drivers not in lawful possession of a leased vehicle. See Fojtik v. Hunter, 265 Conn. at 394 ("Once the lessor has no control over the identity of the driver, then the lessor is no longer in a position to decrease the risk of loss and should not be subject to liability."); Schimmelpfennig v. Cutler, 65 Conn.App. 388 (Conn. App. 2001).