Q&A: Laundry and a Housekeeper
Laundry and a Housekeeper
Question
A housekeeper who also does laundry accidentally put a garment in with other clothes that weren’t suitable for it, and used the wrong wash cycle. It needed to be washed only with that same color and on a “hand wash” program, meaning a very delicate wash, and the garment was ruined. It was a dress worth 500 shekels, which is more than all the money the housekeeper earned that day. What does Jewish law say? She could have realized that this was a garment that wasn’t suitable for that machine, or she could have asked. She says she thought it was suitable.
Answer
That depends on whether a reasonable woman should have understood this or not. In other words, the question is whether this counts as negligence, or as something more like theft or loss.
The background is a dispute among the halakhic decisors (in Choshen Mishpat, beginning of siman 306) whether a day laborer working in the owner’s home has the status of a paid custodian, an unpaid custodian, or is not even like an unpaid custodian, because the owner has not withdrawn from guarding his property (the Bach there).
If this is akin to negligence, then she is probably liable (except according to the Bach’s view, which is a lone opinion). But if it is akin to theft or loss, then because of the doubt, money cannot be extracted from her.