Q: Two men were murdered with a gun owned by one. Can a suit be brought against owner of the gun?
Four men were in a car, the driver and owner of the car, and passengers 1, 2, and 3. They were stopped in a neighborhood in order to sell drugs. Passenger 3, sitting in the backseat behind the driver, shot and killed the driver while he was still seated in the car. Passenger 1, in the front passenger seat, exited the car and ran. Passenger 2, in the backseat behind passenger 1, was attempting to get out of the car to run, but was shot and killed by passenger 3. My question: can the parent of passenger 2 sue the estate of the driver for wrongful death because the gun used to kill the driver and passenger 2 was registered to the driver?
The driver and owner of the gun has a trust account.
A:
Maybe. Even if a suit could be brought, how would anyone collect? The type of people who sell drugs and use guns don't seem to be likely to have the kind of money that would make a wrongful death lawsuit profitable. It seems unlikely that any insurance policy would apply to these circumstances, so any recovery would probably have to come out of the perpetrator's pocket. A thorough review of the police report would be necessary to give a more accurate answer.
There is the potential of a limited recovery from the Victim Compensation Board. https://victims.ca.gov/victims/howtoapply.aspx
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