Your car accident story reminds me of a couple of incidents that we had.
The first occurred several years ago in Kensington when we sideswiped a double-parked car. We left a note for the owner. When he called back we ended up arranging for him to have it repaired at a nearby collision shop (Speedy Rental / Dahill auto repair, run by two Chasidishe brothers [Abe and Yanky], very erlich, nice and reasonably priced). The owner of the damaged vehicle turned out not to be Jewish, so it is nice to hear that this type of thing makes a good roishum. There is a yetzer hora to run away, but bottom line is that we were supposed to lose a few hundred dollars, and we certainly would have lost it another way (aside from the genaiva).
The second incident comes with a shailo.
Somebody parked one night edged into our driveway about a foot-and-a-half. When we pulled into our driveway we damaged part of his car that was edged in. We left a note, and in this case it turned out the person was a young frum guy, who had only edged into our driveway to make room for the person behind him. Legally we were obligated for the damage, so we paid most of it (he was mochel about fifty dollars).
My question is:
Although we paid since legally we were liable and dina dimalchusa dina, if dina dimalchusa did not apply here would we still be responsible here? Would he be responsible for our damages? This is not nogeah limaseh, but I am curious as to the halacha.
Opinions are welcome, but if someone (who knows hilchos mamanos and nizikin better than I do) can point out a basis for what they believe the halocha should be I would appreciate it.
Thank you.