patrick_y[PuristSPro Moderator]
33633
You can ask their insurance to pay for the damage...
I've done that. And my vehicle wasn't even an especially expensive vehicle A passenger out of a car opened the door too quickly and lightly dented my driver's door.
The passenger was a friend of the driver. Driver was the owner of the car. I got the driver's information and basically informed him that I would go after his insurance if his passenger didn't pay for the damages. The passenger eventually did pay up after I got an estimate to repair the vehicle.
Absolutely perfectly normal behavior. People who actually leave door dings can be prosecuted as vandals, vandalism in California theoretically can be up to a felony if the damage is past a certain dollar threshold.
There was once a pregnant woman who opened her car door into my vehicle in my presence and I gave her a few words to remind her to respect other people's property. Fortunately there was no damage. The woman and her husband made no comment and almost ignored me as they just walked past very nonchalantly almost as if it was not a big deal even if they had created a dent. I was more upset about the lack of an apology than the impact. Fortunately the impact didn't leave any damage.
Society is going to crap these days. And I usually try to visit areas where people are well-behaved.