A federal judge has upheld a $350,000 punitive damages award against a Michigan dealership in a wrongful delivery and repossession case.
U.S. District Judge David Lawson rejected Suburban Chevrolet Cadillac’s argument in Ann Arbor that the jury’s award in favor of Tina McPherson was excessive.
In July 2020, McPherson made a $2,000 down payment on a 2017 Dodge Durango and applied for financing from two lenders, according to the lawsuit. The next day, she filled out the paperwork and took delivery of the vehicle.
About a week later, she received a notice of adverse action from one of the creditors. The lawsuit alleged that Suburban then sent a request with different terms to a third creditor without her permission.
McPherson refused to execute the new financing documents or return the title. The dealership then hired a towing company to repossess the Durango, and her finance manager told her the shop was withholding $900 from the down payment to cover expenses, according to the lawsuit.
At trial, a jury found the dealership liable for violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act and state laws, as well as for improper conversion and repossession.
In a July 31 opinion, Lawson refused to reduce the $350,000 punitive damages award.
Evidence presented at trial demonstrates the “reprehensibility of the store’s illegal conduct,” including McPherson’s “financial vulnerability,” Lawson wrote. He cited testimony that the repossession of the family’s only vehicle forced them to improvise alternative transportation, including buses, Uber, borrowed vehicles and eventually renting a vehicle for months so she could commute to work and keep her job.
He also summarized testimony that McPherson’s treatment “was not an exception or a mere fluke, but rather represented ‘business as usual'” for the dealership, which had unwound other deals, the ruling said. Among them was a customer who had been “harassed” to renegotiate financing for 15 weeks, whose credit history had been accessed 68 times, who was falsely told that alternative financing had been approved and whose vehicle was repossessed three months after the sale.
The “most damning” evidence, Lawson said, was the indisputable evidence that dealership officials repeatedly urged McPherson to either turn in the Durango or sign a new loan agreement, falsely saying that the dealership still owned the vehicle and had no legal right to “undo the completed sale at will.”
An attorney for the dealership did not respond to questions, and an attorney for McPherson declined to comment.