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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Nov 2015
    Posts
    1

    Default Reporting a Threat of Violence After Twenty Years

    My question involves criminal law for the state of: California

    In 1996 I agreed to sell a vehicle that I owned to an acquaintance. He offered me $200 down and the rest in payments for a total of $1500. I received the $200 and gave him a receipt. No contract was created. I let him drive the vehicle while waiting for the rest of the money. I told him I wanted 30 days for full & final payment; he agreed. The very next day, I was visited by this persons father who told me that I would not be getting any more money and threatened me with violence if I went to the police. I never saw my car again or the father & son. I've been pretty scared all of these years but finally decided to see if I have any options for recovering my beloved car, a 1976 Pontiac Trans Am. I still have the original Title with my name on it. I would love to know if the car is still in existence and registered to anyone, especially this individual whom I am no longer afraid. Can anyone tell me if I have any legal rights to my vehicle after all of these years? I now live in Colorado.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
    Location
    California
    Posts
    20,594

    Default Re: 20 Year Old Stolen Vehicle - Coerced into Not Reporting to Police

    Short answer, no. You don't really have a legal right to it after 20 years.

    About all you can hope for is that the registration and title is still in your name. Even then, you have no real chance of forcing it from the custody of whomever might currently have possession of it. But, if it still has the same license plate for some odd reason, you might be able to run it by the DMV.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Oct 2014
    Posts
    8,238

    Default Re: 20 Year Old Stolen Vehicle - Coerced into Not Reporting to Police

    Quote Quoting schofieb
    View Post
    My question involves criminal law for the state of: California

    In 1996 I agreed to sell a vehicle that I owned to an acquaintance. He offered me $200 down and the rest in payments for a total of $1500. I received the $200 and gave him a receipt. No contract was created.

    There was a contract. It was a verbal contract for the sales of goods, in this case a car. You gave him a receipt for the down payment, and depending on what was stated on that receipt it might be sufficient to meet the requirement of a writing as required by the UCC for the sales of goods over $500. Even if it wasn’t sufficient to meet the requirement of a writing, the fact that the car was received by the buyer and accepted by him would be enough to get around the writing requirement. In short, you had a contract to sell the car to the guy for $1500 on an installment arrangement. He breached the agreement by not paying you the balance owed on that contract. Assuming that the buyer was an adult, you could have enforced the contract by suing the buyer for the balance owed. You didn’t and the statute of limitations to sue has long since expired. So you could not win the lawsuit if you filed it now. The car was not stolen. You voluntarily gave up possession of the car pursuant to the contract. The buyer had rightful possession of it. Your remedy back in 1996 was a lawsuit for the money owed to you or perhaps to repossess the car since you still held title to it. But repossession won’t be remedy now, either, after all these years. I think you’ll have to let this one go.

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