Legal Question in Civil Litigation in California
In April 2010, my car was stolen from a public parking structure. I only had liability insurance at the time so I took the financial impact of that loss. I estimate the loss to be at approximately $15,000. I just got a call from the detective handling the case telling me that they found the car. Someone reported some suspicious activity and when the police showed up, they stopped a private tow truck driver with the car on his tow truck. They arrested the driver for possession of stolen property. Can I sue the driver in an attempt to recover the value of the car? I do not know exactly what legal recourse I have and any guidance would be greatly appreciated.
Sincerely,
AJS
2 Answers from Attorneys
Sure. You can sue for "trespass to chattels" and "conversion" and request your actual damages plus punitive damages. You could subpoena the police report and take the deposition of the driver to find out where he got the car, possibly revealing additional defendant(s). Maybe you will get lucky and identify a defendant, possibly a towing company or other business entity, who has money to pay you when you win the lawsuit.
The implied point of Mr. Stone's comments is that if you have the car back, you have very little in the way of damages and a lot of barriers to collecting anything in a lawsuit.
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