Potential liability after auto buyer fails to transfer title.
If I sell a car and the buyer fails to transfer the title and yet drives the car (for weeks) and causes a wreck could I be held liable since the car is still titled in my name. Presume that the buyer also has no liability insurance and I cancelled mine when he drove off with the title in his hand. If this is the case, what is the solution? Should I, the seller, insist upon transferring the title myself? Will a dated bill of sale protect me? Thanks for your advice.
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.
Francisco Romero
F.L. Romero Esq., P.C.
2038 Caribou Drive, Suite 101
Fort Collins, CO 80525