Legal Question in Personal Injury in California
My car totalled by someone else
While I was away on business, my boyfriend drove my car
even though he had been expressely denied permission to
do so. He lives in my house and had access to the keys. In
my absence, he took my car, crashed it (the car is totalled,
no other cars involved) and
was taken to jail on a DUI and child endangerment charge
as his six year old child was in the car. His insurance
company won't cover the damages since it was not his car.
My insurance company asked me to file a stolen vehicle
report so that I would be deemed not at fault and this would
not affect my record. The local police dept. refused to take a
stolen auto report since he lives on my property. Now the
accident will go on my record, I will have to pay my
deductible, my premium will go up and I am being held
responsible for damage to city property caused in the crash.
Can I do anything to prevent this from going on my record
and affecting my ins. premiums for years to come? Can I sue
him for damages even though he still lives on my property?
Is there another form of report such as "unauthorized use
and resulting damage to personal property" that I can file
with the local police department?
Thank you.
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: My car totalled by someone else
While you orally told your boyfriend not to drive your car, you did leave keys accessible to him in your home. This was a mistake. It can be said that your boyfriend had "implied or constructive" permission to drive your car.
As to the police department refusing to take a stolen vehicle report, I would make a formal complaint with someone higher up about this. I know of no law that states that a vehicle cannot be stolen simply because it was driven by someone in your household. In any event, you should send a formal letter to your insurance company indicating that you attempted to make a stolen vehicle report but that the police department refused to take one.
Your driving record with the State DMV may not be affected in this case. The accident will be recorded under your boyfriend's driver's license number and will go on his record. However, your insurance company may record this as an "at fault accident" on your record with the insurance company. Every company handles these cases a little differently and you should speak with your agent, your claim's personnel or the underwriting department as to how they are going to handl this. Obviously, the ideal situation would be that this is not counted as a "chargeable" accident against your record so that your premium is not increased. If you already have an otherwise clean slate with your insurance company, there may be no problem.
As to damage to the city property, your property damage liability coverage will take care of that. As to your boyfriend, he should be responsible to reimburse you any out of pocket losses or expenses that you are responsible for y ourself. Technically, you still could sue him even though he still lives with you. Is he still your boyfriend at this time? Does he still live in your home? If so, does he still have access to your automobile keys? What steps are you going to take to make sure this does not happen int he future? I hope this information helps. Good luck!
Sincerely,
SAM M. EAGLE
ATTORNEY AT LAW
10101 SLATER AVE #218
FOUNTAIN VALLEY, CA 92708
TELEPHONE: (714) 963-5123
FACSIMILE: (714) 964-9993
E-MAIL: [email protected]
Re: My car totalled by someone else
It is sometimes hard to affect internal insurance company policy.
The incident should only go on your record if your insurance company has to
pay something. If you have asked them to pay to fix your car, then inform them of
your efforts to report the unauthorized use, that the police wouldn't take the report,
and to consider this an unauthorized use. Your boyfriend can be sued, since he caused the
damage. He should be the only one responsible for the damage to city property (you
are only responsible as an owner, to a limit, for permissive use). You need to arrange with
the insurance company to obtain the right to sue and to repay them from any monies obtained, since
if they paid for the damage, they have "subrogation" rights.
This shouldn't go on your DMV record, so one solution, possibly, is to change
insurance companies.
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