Recovering for a Car Damaged by Stray Gunfire

Attorney Answer

The person who fired the shots is legally responsible for your car, but that is almost never where the money comes from. For most people in your position the realistic route is their own comprehensive coverage, with a claim against a property owner only if the facts support one.

Texas law here is ordinary negligence and ordinary property damage. Someone who damages your property is liable for the damage. When the person who did it is a robber, two practical problems follow. He may never be identified. If he is identified and convicted, a criminal court can order restitution to victims of the offense, but restitution is collected over time from someone who usually has nothing, and it is not a substitute for an insurance payment. Ask the prosecutor's victim-assistance office to record you as a property-damage victim anyway — it costs nothing and it is the only way to be in the file if restitution is ordered.

The question people really want answered is whether the bank, or whoever owns the property where this happened, has to pay. Sometimes, but it is not automatic, and it does not follow from the crime alone. Texas holds a property owner responsible for harm from a third party's criminal act only in limited circumstances, and the analysis turns on the relationship between the owner and the person harmed, what the owner knew or should have known about the risk of criminal activity there, and whether the harm was foreseeable. Those are fact questions decided on evidence about the location and its history, not on the fact that a robbery occurred. A Texas attorney who can look at the specific property and its record is the person to answer it, and no general page can.

If more than one party turns out to be responsible, Texas divides the loss rather than pooling it. Under Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 33.003(a) the trier of fact assigns a percentage of responsibility, in whole numbers, to each claimant, each defendant, each settling person, and each responsible third party who has been designated. Under § 33.013(a) a liable defendant is liable only for the percentage of damages equal to its own percentage of responsibility, with the narrow exceptions in § 33.013(b) for a defendant more than 50 percent responsible or one who acted in concert with specific intent to do harm. In plain terms: you generally cannot collect the whole loss from whichever defendant has money, unless that defendant's own share is large enough.

The fastest path is usually your own policy. Comprehensive coverage — the part of an auto policy that covers losses other than a collision — commonly reaches damage from gunfire or vandalism, subject to your deductible. A claim on your own policy is a first-party claim under Tex. Ins. Code § 542.051(2), which means the prompt-payment subchapter's handling and payment requirements apply to it, and Tex. Ins. Code § 541.060(a) governs how your own insurer must handle the settlement of it.

What you can do

1. Get the incident or report number from the law enforcement agency that investigated, and request a copy of the report when it is released.

2. Photograph the damage from several angles, including the entry points, before any repair.

3. Leave anything the police collected with the police, and tell them if you find damage or a fragment they did not.

4. Call your own insurer and ask specifically whether your policy has comprehensive coverage and whether it applies to this loss.

5. Get two written repair estimates, and keep receipts for a rental or other transportation you have to pay for.

6. Contact the prosecutor's victim-assistance office and ask to be listed as a victim with property damage.

7. Ask a Texas attorney whether the facts about this property support a claim against anyone besides the shooter.

8. Most lawyers offer a brief initial call at no cost, and a few minutes on your specific facts is worth more than any general guidance, including this page.

⏱ Time limits apply. Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003(a) requires suit for injury to property to be brought not later than two years after the day the cause of action accrues. When a claim accrues, and whether any different rule reaches a particular defendant, depends on facts this page cannot see — so have a Texas attorney confirm your dates rather than counting from the day it happened.