Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Louisiana
In 2009 I loaned my vehicle family member, the family member allowed someone else who did not have authorization from me to operate or even be in my vehicle and it was totaled in an accident. The unaurthorized operator of my vehicle was not at fault. The family member and user filed a lawsuit against the driver at fault and at the time of the accident made a verbal promise to me to provide me money to purchase another vehicle, due to a dispute they did not honor their promise. What can I do? Can I have the unauthorized operator arrested and charged with theft? I say this because I was not informed of the unauthorized person even being in my vehicle, let alone driving until I received the accident report. My insurance paid off my vehicle but I was left with the loss of transportation.
2 Answer from Attorneys
Because your family member (who had permission) gave permission to the operator, the operator is deemed to have permission.