A dealer network in the south is in trouble with the United States Department of Justice after it repossessed three cars from deployed soldiers without going through the courts — in direct violation of the Servicemembers’ Civil Relief Act. Now those service members are getting a cool $77,000 in collective recompense from the dealer, while the government gets another $60,000 in fines. Sucks to suck, dealer!
When a service member is deployed for military purposes, repossessing their car isn’t as simple as just showing up with a tow truck and a claim of missed payments. Instead, dealers or lienholders are meant to go through a legal process involving the courts — so long as those service members did their transactions before being deployed, as was the case here according to local outlet WBRC. The dealer, Holmes Motors, should have filed a lawsuit and gotten a court order before it could actually take the servicemembers’ vehicles. The dealer could have charged bonus fees for missed payments, but jumping straight to repossession was a legal bridge too far.
A weird response
The dealer settled with the Department of Justice for that $137,000 sum, but it accompanied that settlement with a statement to local media that’s downright baffling. In a release given to WBRC, Holmes Motors CEO Brian Holmes said:
While we recognize the importance of strict compliance, we also believe it is important to provide context. Over the course of approximately 20,000 vehicle transactions during the relevant time period, this matter involved a very limited number of transactions. In several of those instances, the issue involved administrative and documentation deficiencies in processing military lease termination paperwork rather than customers being charged improper fees. Holmes Motors absorbed financial losses associated with those transactions, including waiving charges such as vehicle damage, excess mileage, and towing costs, rather than passing those costs on to the servicemembers involved.
“Yes, we broke the law, but only sometimes and it was barely even our fault once you think about there being documents involved” is a wild defense. I can’t say I’m exactly sold on it, but it matters less than the nearly $26,000 that each of those service members will be getting. Hopefully, that’s enough for them to all buy new cars outright and not have to deal with the nightmare of financing while in the armed services again.
