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Mommy2gio · Mar 27, 2007, 02:53 PM

My husband and his friend were hanging out one afternoon and another friend needed a ride home. My husband said that his friend could drive the other one home(he lives about 25 min away) but he needed to bring the car right back. My husband had left his cell phone in the car on accident. About 3 hours go by and he still has the car. My husband has his other friend bring him home. My husband calls his phone over and over(no answer, has other people call his phone and our friend picks up for them. Not to mention we live in Washington state and he lives in oregon(only about 20 min away but it's still across state lines). Anyway we drive over to portland, Oregon and go to every place he might be to track him down. We finally contact his mother at her place(about 10 hours after he has had our car). She says to report in stollen but we wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. After 12 hours with out our vehicle he finally answers our phone call. We meet up to get the car and my husband is furious and says "never contact me ever again....I don't care if you are getting married or anything don't call me".

He swears he wasn't driving it all around( even though there is a case of cd's that are not ours, caps from beer bottles etc.) We drive off and make him walk home. This friend is a screw up and has burned bridges with everyone but my husband kept giving chance after chance.

This was 2 days ago.Yesterday we get a call asking for our friend and saying "this is so and so and yesterday you rear ended me and there is minimal damage and I don't want to go through insurance but I do need to get an estimate. So right now my husband is freaking out he explains that this is not the person who he met yesterday but we will take care of it.

The guy called today and said it will be $900 and some change to fix it.
Can we sue our(ex)friend for this amount or his mother and if so what if he has no money or anything else for that matter so how do we get this taken care of. He is 23 and extreamly immature. What are our rights legally? We don't want to go through our insurance either because then we will be penalized for something we did'nt do.

Any advised would be great!

RubyPitbull · Mar 27, 2007, 06:31 PM

You can sue anybody you want to sue. Doesn't mean you will win anything.

These are your options:

Don't sue his Mother. She had nothing to do with this. He is an adult. She is not legally responsible for his actions and you will lose if you try to do this.

You can sue your friend. You might very well win if you can get the other driver to testify that your friend was the guy driving. And, if you win, what then? If he doesn't have any money, you just spent an indeterminate amount of your free time filing paperwork and testifying in court. Then what? If there isn't any money to collect on, what have you accomplished. Well, it might teach your friend a much needed lesson.

You might want to consider calling the other driver back and asking if you can arrange to have an estimate at a body shop of your choosing. See if the estimate is fair. If the original estimate is a little too high, you can negotiate with his body shop guy over the price. Pay it and chalk this whole experience up to a very expensive lesson learned. Don't entrust guys, with anything of value to you, that you know are screw ups. (Tell that to your husband, I am sure you wouldn't have done such a thing).

Or, you can choose to call your insurance company and let them handle this. If you choose to go this route, you will want to call them ASAP.

Or, you could fill out a request to be considered for: Judge Judy

I believe they pay the people that are chosen for the show. Don't know what the fee is, you would have to speak to her people about it. You could get the innocent driver his money and you probably won't be out of pocket anything. You might even make a little money on it. And, you get the satisfaction of making your friend look like a total jerk on national television.

If you know of any of the other nationally broadcast court TV shows, you could do a search and try one of them as well.

Fr_Chuck · Mar 27, 2007, 06:54 PM

Don't do anything but turn it over toyour insurance, most likely this is a scam and you are being cheated.

RubyPitbull · Mar 27, 2007, 06:58 PM

You know Fr Chuck, that exact thought did cross my mind while I was responding. I was going to ask if there was any noticeable damage to her own car, but thought I should just answer the question. Figured if it was a scam, it would come out in any of the options I suggested.

Mommy2gio · Mar 27, 2007, 09:18 PM

Thank you for your advice. Unfortunantly it is not a scam. We did notice are licence plate was bent after we received the phone call. Thank god he didn't hurt anybody during that whole situation. Thanks again

Noviceplaintiff · Mar 30, 2007, 04:47 PM

Originally Posted by Mommy2gio

My husband and his friend were hanging out one afternoon and another friend needed a ride home. My husband said that his friend could drive the other one home(he lives about 25 min away) but he needed to bring the car right back. My husband had left his cell phone in the car on accident. About 3 hours go by and he still has the car. My husband has his other friend bring him home. My husband calls his phone over and over(no answer, has other people call his phone and our friend picks up for them. Not to mention we live in washington state and he lives in oregon(only about 20 min away but it's still across state lines). Anyway we drive over to portland, oregon and go to every place he might be to track him down. We finally contact his mother at her place(about 10 hours after he has had our car). She says to report in stollen but we wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. After 12 hours with out our vehicle he finally answers our phone call. We meet up to get the car and my husband is furious and says "never contact me ever again....I don't care if you are getting married or anything don't call me".

He swears he wasn't driving it all around( even though there is a case of cd's that are not ours, caps from beer bottles etc.) We drive off and make him walk home. This friend is a screw up and has burned bridges with everyone but my husband kept giving chance after chance.

This was 2 days ago.Yesterday we get a call asking for our friend and saying "this is so and so and yesterday you rear ended me and there is minimal damage and i don't want to go through insurance but I do need to get an estimate. So right now my husband is freaking out he explains that this is not the person who he met yesterday but we will take care of it.

The guy called today and said it will be $900 and some change to fix it.
Can we sue our(ex)friend for this amount or his mother and if so what if he has no money or anything else for that matter so how do we get this taken care of. He is 23 and extreamly immature. What are our rights legally? We don't want to go through our insurance either because then we will be penalized for something we did'nt do.

any adviced would be great!

Hi,

You can't sue your friend's mother as he is not a minor. There was some information left out of your question, so based on what you provided, here is an answer:

Using my previous Property & Casualty License experience:

Without knowing who the person is that is claiming the accident, if there was an accident, file an incident report at your local police department. Tell everything about the car being taken, etc. Once the police report is filed, inform the "caller" that you filed a report and that he needs to refer to his insurance company. His insurance company will contact you, then you will provide your insurance company's information. Your insurance company will contact you and discuss the issue. Since you were not the driver of the vehicle and filed a police report regarding the car, the insurance company will more than likely not pay the claim.

However, the downside is that you didn't file the car as stolen prior to its return. So an officer may be reluctant to want to write the report. But if you push hard enough or get a nice one, they will write the report for you. If you end up having to pay for the damages (which he should have 3 estimates) then you must sue your friend in small claims court.

ScottGem · Mar 30, 2007, 04:54 PM

Before you file with your insurance I suggest you check what your coverage is for a non listed driver. If your insurance covers a non listed driver, then file a claim. If you have a good record, with a minimal claim like this your rates shouldn't be affected.

However, if you are not covered if you loan your car to a non-listed driver, then I would not put in a claim as it will be denined anyway.

RichardBondMan · Mar 30, 2007, 07:36 PM

Rule is generally anyone you loan your veh to with your permission is covered, you loaned it to him with your permission and didn't report it as stolen to the police and I assume the 23 yr old didn't live with you (or is not specifically excluded) and therefore is not specifically named as being excluded from your insurance. Your liability insurancethen will pay assuming the accident didn't occur in a "no fault" state and your state of residence is not a "no fault" insurance state. A "no fault" state is one in which generally (and I state generallly, as there are differing degrees of no fault) each party's ins pays for it's own insured's loss. Lots of things to ponder and I don't know the insurance laws in Oregon or Washington but I would turn it over to my insurance company. If the 23 yr old had his own insurance, it may pay rather than yours but your insurance company can ask that question of the driver, etc. That's one reason you pay premiums. I would siimply let them handle it. Forget sueing the 23 yr old, if he has nothing, no insurance, money, job, even if successful in the suit, what can you get if he has nothing. I know you said and I quote "We don't want to go through our insurance either because then we will be penalized for something we did'nt do".. I understand you didn't cause the accident but you did in a way by loaning him the car. So let your insurance handle it.