Back in March when I wrote about Megan Campbell (the woman who hit her own car with a city vehicle and then sued the city for damages), I thought it was a first. But it seems I missed a similar case from 2006.
This one involved a Lodi, California, dump truck driver named Curtis Gokey. While on the job one day, he backed the truck he was driving into his personal vehicle. Even though he admitted that the accident was totally his fault, he went ahead and filed a $3600 claim against the city because hey, why not? City officials took the quite logical position that since he was the one who did the damage he would essentially be suing himself, and most of the time you can’t do that. The court ultimately agreed, and his claim was denied.
But…
That didn’t stop Gokey’s wife Rhonda from filing a suit of her own for the same reason. She, however, asked for $4800 rather than the $3600 her husband had requested because, and I’m quoting here, “I’m not as nice as my husband is.” Persuasive an argument as that is, her claim was also denied because the car was considered to belong to both of them so if one suit fails, the other obviously should too.
I haven’t heard anything new about the Campbell case, but here’s hoping for a similar fate minus the part where other family members get involved and make fools of themselves.
