Every owner of a motor vehicle is liable and responsible for death or injury to person or property resulting from a negligent or wrongful act or omission in the operation of the motor vehicle, in the business of the owner or otherwise, by any person using or operating the same with the permission, express or implied, of the owner.
Cal. Veh. Code § 17150
Private Owners
Applied in 50 court decisions — leading case 5 Cal. 3d 153 - Vesely v. Sager (1971)
Most recently applied in 229 Cal. App. 4th 1432 - Mercury Casualty Co. v. Hung Chu (September 2014)
Amended by Stats. 1967, Ch. 702.
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: California Legislative Information. Reproduced from public-domain California statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.