[robomartin]

Hypothetical: I lend a hammer to a neighbor. He then goes and, after building the cabinet he needed the hammer for, kills two people with it.

Why am I liable for his actions?

This is the part of the rent-your-car story I just don't get. She had nothing to do with it. She should have zero liability. That's the part of the legal system that is really messed-up. Liability for this accident should sit squarely on the shoulders of those directly involved in causing it. The only way she should be liable is if the car had a known defect that caused the accident.

[rayiner]

The difference is that car accidents are a foreseeable and inherent risk of car operation, but not hammer operation.

[learc83]

Car accidents are foreseeable and inherent, but this guy was driving in the wrong lane, what if he intentionally did it as a suicide (not saying he did, but hypothetically).

What if someone rented a car and intentionally drove it into a crowd of people?