Legal Question in Personal Injury in California

Re: Animal issue

You must be kidding. You stole someone else's cat, and now that the rightful owner has found out and retrieved her pet *you* want to sue *her*???

Thieves never become the rightful owners of what they steal. The cat was thus never yours. You had no right to possess the cat while it lived with you, and you have no right to demand it back.

The fact that you spent money on the cat is unimportant. If the cat was lost and you merely cared for it until it was reunited with its owner you would be entitled to recover your reasonable expenses. But stealing the cat is not legally equivalent to finding it.

I empathize with your desire to take care of a cat you felt (correctly, I presume) was not being cared for properly. But the way to handle such situations is to call animal control. If circumstances so warrant, they can seize the neglected animal and put it up for adoption. Had you made such a report you might well have become the cat's legal owner by now.

You need to remember that animals in captivity are property. There are laws against mistreating them, but otherwise they are basically like any other property. You aren't entitled to take one just because you think you could be a better owner -- even if you're right.

So, between you and the cat's rightful owner, guess who can successfully sue whom.