Would I be able to sue someone in this situation?

Question

My wife was driving her truck and this guy went past a stop sign and blind sided her on the right side of her truck. Turns out the driver had taken the car from his workplace (he works at a bodyshop) to run a erand. On top of that, the car is owned by a client of the bodyshop and was being driven without permission at the time of the crash. The car ended up not having insurance and so our truck is totaled and her body is all messed up. The funny thing is that the owner of the bodyshop felt so bad after what happened that he offered to pay us the total of the truck even though he isn't at fault! Could we go after the car's owner for not having insurance or would that just be a waste of time cause we have no case? Should we wait to see what the bodyshop's ins. co. says? The driver had no license or nothing, he is illegal. We are in Texas by the way.

Answer 1

Wait to hear from the auto body shop's insurance company.  They likely have Garage liability coverage which covers  them and their employees while operating a customer's vehicle.  There could be coverage exclusions, and the insurance company may deny the claim, but wait and find out what position they will take.    

In the mean time, you might want to contact your insurance company and file a Collision claim for the damage to your vehicle and place them on notice of a potential "uninsured motorist claim", for your wife's injuries.  You do not want to wait too long to do this as they could potentially deny for late notice.

Answer 2

You can pretty much sue anyone for anything these days. If you feel you have a legitimate case, you should get some free counseling from an attorney. Many attorneys will have a meeting with you for a free consultation to see if you have a case that merits legal proceedings, as this will bring them money as well. But even without an attorney, you can still pursue legal action, that is your right as a citizen.

Answer 3

What does YOUR insurance company say?

Answer 4

You are way off base dude.

1) Why would U want to sue the car's owner?  They are a victim here too.  They had no control and did nothing to U.

2) The owner of the body shop IS at fault.  His employee had this accident, that's why he offered to pay for the truck.

Sue the h**l out of the bodyshop.  That's what he deserves for hiring an illegal.

Answer 5

You can sue anyone for any reason.  You'll have to pay the lawyer up front.  You're probably not going to be able to get a JUDGEMENT against anyone except the driver of the car, and if he's an illegall, you're never going to see any MONEY out of it.

So, your call.  Pay the $10K to your lawyer, get the judgement, or next time buy the insurance on YOUR policy, so you can collect the next time you get hit by an illegal here in TX.

Answer 6

Your chances of recovering from the owner of thye vehicle are almost zero. The best lawyer on the planet would have one h**l of a time trying to prove the owner of the vehicle was negligent considering, I am almost 100% sure, they did not give permission to the body shop to allow the vehicle to be driven on the a public roadway by their unlicenced employee for a personal errand!

Your grievance is with the body shop. They failed to take even basic care to ensure: a) their unlicenced employees did not have access to company or customer vehicles; b) to ensure client's uninsured vehicles weren't operated on public roadways. at this point wait and see what the body shop's insurer has to say.