Legal Question in Civil Litigation in California

Under some, not common, circumstances a gift can be taken back. The most common example is a charitable contribution that gets diverted to another purpose, but there are others. You can sue someone for anything. The question is whether you will win. No way to tell in your case without knowing all the facts.

Generally, if you can establish that the giver had "donative intent," then the gift is yours. The analysis of the giver's intent is fact based. For example, you might look at the pink slip with the "gift" notation. That supports the conclusion that the car was, indeed, a gift. On the other hand, you might look at how the value of the car compares with the wealth of the giver. While a rich person might give away cars, most people would not be able to do so. Perhaps, the term, "gift" means, to people of more modest means, that the gift was the USE of the car - not the car, itself.

One clear-cut exception to the rule that a gift belongs to the recipient is where the gift is given in contemplation of marriage and the marriage does not occur. In that case, the giver gets the gift back.