Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Re: seller decides not to sale

Well, the answer to the question "Can they sue me?" is almost always "yes" because it is very easy to file a lawsuit and make charges against someone, and if you do it in pro. per. or in small claims court, it's cheap.

The real question is whether they can sue and win.

Whether the buyers can sue the son and win will depend upon several factors:

1. Whether the son was over the age of 18 years.

2. Whether the deposit has been returned (or offered to be returned) or not.

3. Whether the son is a co-owner of the car and appears on title as such,

4. Whether the son was acting as the parents' agent, or the buyers reasonably thought he was acting as the parents' agent.

5. Whether the son made any fraudulent misrepresentations about ownrship, authority to sell, what would be done with the deposit, or the like.

The son's real problem here is that the facts that get him off the hook for breach of contract also are the same facts that tend to implicate him in fraud.

A complete analysis would require the missing facts to be supplied and some of the surrounding circumstances explained.