Whose Insurance Pays When You Crash a Friend's Car

Attorney Answer

When someone drives another person's car with permission, the car's own policy is usually the one that answers first. But the pressing issue in what you describe is not coverage — it is time.

Texas gives two years. Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003(a) requires suit for personal injury or property damage to be brought not later than two years after the day the cause of action accrues, which for a crash normally means the day it happened. You describe the crash as happening about two years before you asked, which puts it at or past that line on its face. If your question is whether you can still sue someone over it, the honest answer is that you very likely cannot, and a Texas lawyer should confirm that from your actual dates rather than leave you guessing.

On the coverage question: which policy pays, and in what order, is set by the wording of the policies themselves rather than by statute. As a general matter the owner's liability coverage responds when a permitted driver is at the wheel, and a driver's own policy may come in behind it or cover what the owner's policy does not. Somebody has to read both policies to tell you more than that. What the law does require is that financial responsibility be established for a vehicle before it is driven at all — Tex. Transp. Code § 601.051 — and the minimum limits set for that purpose in Texas are $30,000 for one person's bodily injury, $60,000 per crash, and $25,000 for property damage, Tex. Transp. Code § 601.072(a-1).

If the claim you made with your friend's insurer is still open, that is a claim on an insurance contract, which stands on different footing from a lawsuit against a driver. Find out its status before assuming everything is closed.

What you can do

1. Call your friend's insurer with the claim number if you have one, and ask in writing for the status: open or closed, what was paid, and to whom.

2. Ask your own insurer the same question about any claim you opened, and ask for the declarations page for the policy you carried at the time.

3. Get the crash report from the agency that responded, if you never obtained one.

4. Put your own documents together: repair estimates, medical bills, and anything either insurer sent you.

5. Take all of it to a Texas attorney and ask one clear question: is anything here still timely. Do not wait until you have a perfect file.

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. The two-year period in Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003(a) governs a suit arising from a crash, and on the date you give it has very likely already passed. Whether anything in your circumstances changes that is a fact question for a Texas attorney, and it should be asked now rather than later.