Legal Question in Civil Litigation in California
Property responsibility
This past weekend I was in Las Vegas for a convention (job related). One of my co-workers, who is a friend of a friend, picked me up at the airport and took me to my hotel. I acidentally left my bag in his car. In this bag was all of my clothes, car keys, keys to my house etc. When I found him later that day, he told me that it was
my responsibility to get my bag out of his car and that it was gone. The whole weekend I was without any clean clothes or any other of my personal belongings. I now have no keys to my car and am a college student with classes first thing Monday morning. Was it his responsibility to keep my bag in his car and/or try to
get my belongings back to me or is it my fault that everything is gone. Does he not have some responsibility in this matter. Please advise.
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Property responsibility
There is no way to say who is to blame without knowing what happened. Did he toss it in a dumpster to spite you? Did he not know it was there and did someone later steal it? Did he toss it in a dumpster mistakenly thinking it was trash? Sure, you were careless to forget it, but that doesn't allow him to dispose of it or keep it or anything like that. I would call the police.
Re: Property responsibility
You have not provided enough information about what happened. Your friend said that your bag was gone, but what does that mean? Was it stolen from his car (perhaps by another passenger)? Did your friend decide to keep it? Did he just throw it away as trash? Perhaps this was a rental car and he left the bag inside when he returned it.
If your "friend" kept your things, destroyed them, threw them away or let someone else have them, then you should take him to court. (Although where you could sue depends on where he lives.) If he was robbed and your bag just happened to be among the things that were stolen, then you are probably out of luck.
Whatever happened, you should probably lose this particular "friend" along with the bag.
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