Legal Question in Personal Injury in California

If you let the cat out due to your negligence then you would have to pay. They carry the burden of proof so they would have to prove that 1 you let the cat out and 2 you were negligent.

Unfortunately, you may be responsible for raising an inconsiderate son. You have put in 150 hours of driving and 6-8 times that in baby sitting without any charge [at $10 per hour, perhaps about $15,000 in wages] and he wants you to pay $400. Tell him to take it out of your pay.

I would like to know some more information, but based upon what you have written you probably have no liability. You were there to babysit; you were not in charge of the house. I am sure that if you had asked the cat owners to put the cat outside because you did not like it, they would have refused. So you had no control over the cat; most cats want to go outside anyway. Since other people were there including I assume the cat owner,you had no authority over nor duty to the cat. Someone else might have let the cat out. There is no evidence of any negligence on your part nor of any duty toward the cat.

Probably no one is legally responsible for what occurred. So the owner of the cat has to pay for any treatment they decide to have. Tell your son he should learn not to look a gift horse in the mouth; he is getting a bargain from you and then he wants to offend you over $400. So he does not get angry at you, tell him I answered your question only on condition of your telling him my entlre comment.