I'm so glad I found this forum. I have an issue that needs clarification, and I hope that someone here can help me.

I moved out from my old apartment nearly 3 months ago. The parking spaces of the old apartment were small and tight. I have a 1997 2-door Chevy Cavalier, in a greenish color. Since it is a 2-door, the size of the door is pretty long. When you open it, its "wingspan" is significantly larger than 4-doors, so I needed as much space in between my driver's side door and the next car. I had to park the car with the trunk in (towards the back wall) first, so that I could put the passenger side flush against the wall in order to open the driver's door wide enough that I can squeeze myself out of the car. As a result, my driver's side door created greenish vertical scratch lines on my female neighbor's car every time I opened the door to get out. I ended up paying $200 to get her car door fixed.

Learning from this lesson, I began to park my car nose in (hood towards the back wall). I tried to park my car as close to the right pole as possible so again, I could open my driver's side door wide enough for me to squeeze out of the car. Another neighbor began to park his car beside me, since the my other female neighbor moved out. He adamantly complained that he could not get out of his new car because I was parked too close (the passenger side) to his driver's side door. I explained to him the situation that happened before, but he was adamant about it. So despite my warning, I began to park with my trunk in again, this time trying to avoid scratching his car as much as possible.

However, getting out of my car was impossible without my car door touching his car door. One day I received a nasty note about it. I wrote him a note in return, saying that I warned him about it before I did it, and he disregarded my warning. And since I felt bad, I considered to pay for half the damages--which should be about $100, even though I told him that there was no way for me to get out of my car without my car door touching his. I have since moved out, and received a phone call that the estimate on his car is $450. I told him that I scracthed his car much less than I did my previous neighbor's, and that it only cost $200. He wants me to pay the entire $450.

My question is, to what extent am I responsible for, and what is the average estimate on a black car door with greenish scrathces between 1/8" to 1/5" (probably 3/4" at the most, but most likely not) long, in a row?

Again sorry for the lengthiness, but I wanted to put as much detail as possible. Thank you for reading about my dilemma, and for your help.

Sorry for your distress.
I didn't catch in your discourse on the first neighbors car the kind of paint she had. It is likely that the color was solid as opposed to a metallic. Most blacks in this day and age are metalics or pearls which means all adjastent panels within 16 inches of the damage have to be blended for color match. Door dent a tri-stage color and the blend zone is 36 inches 360 degrees, I'd pay the $450 on a black car and be thankful they could fix it only refinnishing 2 panels!