Transportation and Vehicle Safety: Drunk Non-Permisive Driver totalled Car, small claims court, old adage

Question
While my mother was in the hospital having leg surgery her house mate, who had been drinking, crashed her car. This occurred in San Jose, CA or nearby.

He was missing for 3 days and came home with a story about crashing the car, and being in the hospital. He won't give us the accident report number, nor the agency name, nor the passenger information-claiming he doesn't have or remember any of that information. The various agencies that we've called so far in San Jose haven't been forthcoming with an accident report nor will they even acknowledge if one exists.

He finally gave us some info that he found out about where the car was towed to. We've since paid the tow company and they had to destroy the car-as the charges were compounding daily. One side was an accordion and the other driver side had the roof ripped open-it was clearly totaled.

With only liability insurance we will have to purchase a new car ourselves. He doesn't have a real job, any money, or a car himself. What is the best way to recover the money from him? Should we have him arrested for stealing the car and press charges? According to him, his family has told him they were going to replace our vehicle. However, we have not heard from them, any attempt at contact is met with excuses from him.  

Answer
Hi Mary....

I am very sorry to hear how your mother was taken advantage of. There are some remedies, but in the end, the old adage is true when trying to get blood out of a turnip....

I assume the vehicle legally belongs to your mother and is also registered to her. This being the case, I would inform the house mate that either he/she provides your mother with all the information she desires, or you will file charges against him/her for stealing the vehicle (10851 CVC), a felony in California.

Armed with enough information to file a complaint, she can certainly take them to small claims court, or if the value of the car is greater than $5,000.00 she would have to file a civil action. Keep in mind that the cost of a civil action may be too costly to recover the monetary loss of the car, whereas small claims is definitely worth her time and is relatively inexpensive.

Even should you win a small claims action or civil action, you still cannot recover monies that the room mate doesn't have.

There are no other means of force to compel someone to comply with a civil agreement or court judgment, short of a contempt of court action, which judges rarely use in this type of case.

You can certainly hire a collection agency to garner the monies for you, but this presupposes that you have a court order ruling in your favor.

I would recommend that she file a small claims action, and should the judge file in her favor, pay a collections agency to collect what is owed to you. Sooner or later, she/she will have to have a bank account or receive a paycheck, and these monies are recoverable.

I wish there were other remedies available, but there just aren't. I wish you both the best of luck, and I hope this has answered your question. Please write back should you have additional questions to ask.

Terry