Liability for son

Questioner

Hello, a few weeks ago our son threw a classmate's bike into a puddle of water. He was suspended by the school for two days for this. A teacher checked the bike after the incident and could not find any damage. Now last week we received a copy of the invoice from a bike repair shop. Issued by the school. This copy of the invoice is for the repair of the bike of our son's classmate. There was no accompanying letter. My son spoke to the classmate afterwards and the classmate said that his brake cables were already broken before the bike was thrown into the puddle of water. The parents of the classmate said that he had to have the bike repaired. We did not pay the copy of the invoice to the bike repair shop. Today we were called by the school and the parents of the classmate wanted our phone number and the school asked if they could give it to us. I said no and gave our e-mail address. What is your advice in this matter?

Lawyer

If the invoice for the repair only concerns the repair of the brake cables, then based on your story, it does not seem to be damage that was caused by your son's actions. If that is the case, you cannot be liable for it. There is then no connection between your son's actions and the damage. Of course, it could be that the classmate did not tell him that his brake cable was already broken. Or that the bicycle repair shop found damage that the teacher did not see. Even if the latter is the case, the question remains whether that damage was caused by throwing the bicycle in the ditch, or whether that damage already existed before that. My advice would be to first ask why the parents think the damage was caused by the incident and to indicate that as far as you know no damage was caused by the incident (story of teacher and classmate). If you wish, you can contact me without any obligation about this matter.