Legal Analysis of the Status of Trusted Person in the State of Abandonment of Negligence

From the perspective of civil responsibility, the basic principle in domination over another’s property is ḍamān (indemnification) and one of its exceptions is yad al-amīn (lit. trustworthy hand). The trustee is not accountable for the damage or destruction of the property entrusted to him so long as he has not committed any violation or negligence (taqṣīr, tafrīṭ). This article is intended to answer the question as to whether the trustee is acquitted of the ḍamān in the state of negligence in case he would restore his trustworthiness in his undertaking by means of a legal repentance after perpetrating negligence. Given the trusting nature of some specific contracts, this notion takes on great importance, the fruits of which are stressed in the present research. In view of the functional aspect of this legal-judicial issue, it is attempted in this article to broach the three viewpoints of the Imāmī jurists and their arguments and by stating some of the legal propositions influential in ḍamān and amāna (trust), which are effective in solving the problem, critically review all the three arguments, and finally present the answer to the above-mentioned question in respect to the conventional dimension of the issue and the attitude of the intellectuals.