Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Missouri

Re: Potential liability after auto buyer fails to transfer title.

I think you are probably okay. Title requirements vary quite a bit by state, but my experience has been that the seller usually "signs over" the title to the buyer, who is then suppose to submit that to the DMV for a new title to issue. Assuming you done that and you've got a bill of sale on the car, you should be okay. Negligence is not usually tied to ownership - ownership can become an issue relative to insurance coverage, so if a driver is driving a car he doesn't own, the question is then whether the driver was a permissive user of the owner. Negligent entrustment is a theory of liability that attempts to stick the owner, but usually it only arises in situations where the owner has some kind of control over the driver - like a parent-child relationship. I don't see these issues as ones that are likely to arise in your situation.