body: Suppose your neighbor asks you to babysit their cat.
  
  
  * The neighbor has to run an errand so they leave it with me.
  * Someone else breaks into my house and steals the cat, along with its diamond necklace.
  * Do they have any chance of successfully suing in court for negligence leading to a loss?
  
  
  The real case I'm thinking of is
  
  
  * VISA issues a credit card to John.
  * John sends me a copy of their VISA bill in order to get some financial advice.
  * The bill happens to contain their credit card number although I did not go out of my way to ask for it.
  * Before I can shred the paper, someone breaks into my house and steals it. In fact, my house contained millions of people's statements and they steal them all.
  * VISA sues me for negligence leading to damages because the theft will likely lead to fraud which will cause them damage. They (correctly) point out that I did not take reasonable action to secure the paperwork.
  * There was no legal agreement between myself and John, nor between myself and VISA. I did not intentionally give out credit numbers. At the same time, I did not go out of my way to secure them either.
  * Damages may have occurred, but I never promised to secure the papers nor to accept liability in the case of their loss.
  
  
  Questions related to this scenario are
  
  
  * Does VISA have a legal leg to stand on?
  * Is there a legal precedent in this (or equivalent) case?
  
  
  If we weren't talking about credit cards, I would have expected John to be ultimately liable but we all know that credit card companies do not hold card holders responsible for unintentional fraud.
  
  
  
title: Legal liability for theft of credit card information left in my care with no contract?