Legal Question in Insurance Law in California

Re: Act of God or negligence?

If you can prove what you believe happened, you have a case. If not, then the defendant won't be liable and the insurer will have successfully defensed the case.

Did you claim the loss from your own car insurer under your comprehensive coverage?

Re: Act of God or negligence?

The small claims court is known as a "court of equity". This means that the commissioner/judge can decide a case based on what would be an equitable result despite the lack of law or evidence to support such a result. The question is then, who should bear the expense, the innocent car owner or the owner of the sheet metal that got loose and damaged the car? Seems clear to me, but one can never guarantee anything in small claims court.

As for the law in CA, the doctrine of "Res Ipsa Loquitur" (meaning "the thing speaks for itself") shifts the burden of proof to the defendant to show defendant's lack of negligence. Res Ipsa Loquitur applies to those situations where the defendant has control over the object, and is better able to bring forward evidence as to what happened, and where ordinarily such an event does not occur absent negligence. In my personal opinion, sheet metal normally doesn't fall from roofs absent negligence). I don't believe the "act of god" defense would fly (no pun intended). Good luck.