Chester, WV – 27 August 2018 – West Virginia’s attorney general says his office has reached a settlement over allegations that a leasing company unlawfully repossessed vehicles.
Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said in a release that the settlement with Auto Trakk LLC was valued at nearly $900,000.
The states legal action stemmed from a case of conflict between a local business contract and state law. It’s about when a business can repossess a vehicle due to late payments. But the owner says the petition is unfairly targeting him because it came from a single person’s complaint.
“If a person wants to sign a contract stating that you’re to repossess their car five days after a payment’s late, you go get it in five days, I don’t see why anyone should have a complaint about it,” said Emuil Byard of J. B. Auto Sales.
The attorney general’s office confirms their petition to a court to shut down Byard’s business is in fact based off a single complaint.
But the state argues the amount of complaints doesn’t matter. It’s because Byard’s contracts allowing him to repossess a vehicle after five days of late or non-payment is illegal.
State statute says 10 days allowance must be offered for any vehicle buyer.
But Byard says he has never had to lean on that time table until now.
The issue comes down to communication. State officials say Byard hadn’t responded to subpoena requests for documents and that’s in part why they seeked to shut down his business.
“This is the first issue I’ve had in 30 years (of repairing and selling vehicles),” Byard said. “I know issues come up from time to time–you don’t always have the cash on hand when it’s time for a car payment. Stay in touch. Give me a call. I’m that hard to get along with. You stay in touch, you have an issue; you
need 15, 20 days, let me know. I’m not going to chase you down for no reason. But if you ignore me, I’ll be there on the day you said I could come get it.”
Morrisey says the company paid the state $100,000 and ceased any efforts to collect $790,000 in consumer debt. He says the company also agreed to recall any consumer accounts turned over to collections and to vacate any judgments related to the accounts.
Auto Trakk denied any wrongdoing and entered into the settlement to resolve the dispute and avoid litigation expenses. It also was accused of making misrepresentations regarding credit repair.
Morrisey says the settlement, agreed on in May, was fully satisfied this month and the case was dismissed recently.
Facebook Comments