Legal Question in Personal Injury in California
Fatal Car Accident - Wife being sued
My uncle's car jumped over a median
into oncoming traffic and collided
with two cars. My uncle was killed in
the accident and the passengers in
the other cars were uninjured but
there cars were totaled. The police
investigator speculated that my uncle
was incoherent before the accident
because there was no steering input
to avoid the accident. My uncle was
underinsured for an accident like this
and now my aunt is being sued for
personal injury by one of the cars
and by one of that same car's
insurance carrier. My uncle had had
fainting spells in the past and it's
possible that that's what caused his
accident. Can we make a reasonable
defense of this?
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Fatal Car Accident - Wife being sued
You need to stop making statements because one wrong sentence can cost you dearly. You need to hire a serious attorney and let him or her handle everything.
Best,
Daniel Bakondi, Esq.
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Re: Fatal Car Accident - Wife being sued
This is a real loser for all involved, and an object lesson why having insufficient insurance is foolish.
I'm assuming she is one of the registered owners. Her 'personal' liability as owner would be limited under the CA Vehicle Code rules to $15,000 for injuries to one person or $30,000 for injuries to all persons in a single accident, plus $5,000 for property damage in a single accident; whether paid by insurance or her own funds if uninsured. IF the plaintiffs in the other car could show she somehow had something to do with the causation of the accident, those limits wouldn't apply. They could try to show she knew he had a problem and let him drive anyway, thus demonstrating her negligence. You raised that issue with his background. Her insurance company should be telling her all this, and providing her defense. That is what you pay them premiums for.
Her problem is that those limits don't apply to him because he was driving, and a judgment against him would apply to community property they both had. It could all be taken to satisfy a judgment. Your insurance company needs to quickly settle at policy limits to protect her.
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