Despite how much we love them, cars make people do dumb things. Whether it’s willingly overpaying for them to being clueless while driving, cars can affect judgment in the worst ways. Vehicle accidents can really bring out the dumb in people. Take the man who tried to sue himself after a collision in this strange story I came across from nearly 20 years ago.
Curtis Gokey was both a resident and dump truck driver with the city of Lodi, California, a small northern California city just outside of Stockton. According to Gokey’s wife Rhonda, during a winter storm that December, Gokey backed the dump truck into his privately owned vehicle, causing damage.
Apparently Gokey’s insurance wouldn’t cover the damage because not long after, he filed a claim with the city for $3,600 in damage to his vehicle — a vehicle that was in both he and his wife’s name. He even admitted to the city that the accident was his fault, yet he still filed the claim. Let me reiterate that if you didn’t catch what’s happening here: this man backed into his own vehicle with a city truck that he was driving and expected the city to foot the bill for the damage. It gets better.
The city denied the claim of course for obvious reasons: you can’t sue yourself. So, thinking that she was clever or something, Rhonda Gokey decided to file another claim, but this time the claim would just have her name, not her husbands. Her reasoning was that the city denied her husband’s claim because he’s the one that caused the accident. Putting her name on a new claim would eliminate “her husband’s alleged conflict of interest” as the Lodi News described. She also increased the damage amount to $4,800, saying “I have the right to sue the city because a city’s vehicle damaged my private vehicle.” She continued, almost threateningly. “I’m not as nice as my husband is. I’m entitled to a replacement vehicle and insurance for the vehicle.” Ok lady.
Of course her claim was thrown out too. Lodi City Attorney Steve Schwabauer essentially said the claim was dumb, especially since Curtis had admitted he was responsible for the accident to begin with. And remember, California is a community property state; what’s mine is yours and all that. Schwabauer pointed this out to NBC News at the time.
You can sue your spouse for divorce, but you can’t sue your spouse for negligence. They’re a married couple under California law. They’re one entity. It’s damage to community property.
So if ever find yourself so incompetent and entitled that you’d try to sue yourself to get someone else to pay for vehicle damage you called, think twice before you do. You’ll probably end up still being talked about and laughed at nearly 20 years later.
