Q:

Non-fault accident, while driving someone else's car and car has been sold

My financée was involved in an accident that was not her fault. The other driver's insurance does not want to cover the cost of damages. Here is where it gets complicated.

The car belonged to my financée's mother
My financée was driving
My financée's mother did not want to fix the car since it was for sale at the time of the accident
The car has since been sold

We had an estimate done for damages (~$4000) at a body shop before the car was sold. Would we still be able to file a lawsuit without having ownership of the car? If so, would it be my financée (driver) or her mother (vehicle owner) who would file the lawsuit?

A:

Yes you can file a lawsuit
Since it is your mother that suffered the damage it is she who would have to sue. She would have to provide evidence of the damage she suffered: presumably the difference between what she got paid for the damaged car compared to what she hypothetically would have been paid for the undamaged car.
That's where it gets tricky - without agreement on the hypothetical undamaged value (which you won't get) you will have to introduce evidence that the sale price was actually lower than it would have been. They would then introduce evidence that your valuation was ridiculously inflated and that at most your loss was $250 (say). The cost to repair is irrelevant - you didn't incur this cost and it is unlikely to bear any correlation to the diminution in the sale price. Good luck.

