Be careful all you car salesmen to make sure the deal closes BEFORE the dealership does:
A customer is suing a US dealership for false imprisonment after claiming it forced her into buying an SUV after closing hours.
Jennifer Faulkenberry claims in a Circuit Court lawsuit that the dealership’s staff held her against her will until she agreed to buy an SUV she did not want for a price higher than she was initially quoted.
The dealership, Nissan of Chesapeake in Virginia, usually closes at 9pm. It says the deal for Faulkenberry’s Nissan Rogue was finalised at 10.47pm.
Faulkenberry’s lawsuit claims she drove off the forecourt after midnight.
The dealership’s managing partner Dan Barrister countered that his staff did nothing wrong. He said they worked with Faulkenberry until after closing only because they wanted to help her finalize the deal. “We stay until whatever time they need us to stay,” said Banister.
Faulkenberry claims among other things in her lawsuit false imprisonment, unjust enrichment and breach of the Virginia Consumer Protection Act. She seeks $400,000 in damages.
Her lawsuit says Faulkenberry purchased the SUV for a “total sale price” of $28,878 and drove off the lot after midnight. A copy of a financing contract provided by Faulkenberry shows that the $28,878 includes the finance charges, an extended-service contract, optional gap insurance and various taxes and fees. It also reflects a $2,250 rebate and $700 trade-in for her 2003 Nissan Altima.
Banister said the Rogue sold for $21,345 - $19,095 after rebates - and the deal was finalized at 10:47 p.m.
The lawsuit claims that during the evening Faulkenberry was told her Nissan Altima was not safe to drive off the premises, and that she had asked an employee if she could take the paperwork home to consider the deal overnight but was told the dealership wouldn’t offer the same deal if she left and returned.
The dealership has an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau.
sounds like the dealership did nothing wrong, she has no case, and has never looked up what false imprisonment means (even though the news article gave no facts really it would be very difficult for them to falsely imprison someone)
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she will be when they throw the case out and make her pay for attorney fees, just because anyone can file a law suit doesn’t mean that they will go anywhere.
She probably wont. This is the misperception that people have of the justice system, cases like this will probably never be heard in court or she will loose in court. Unless the article is be incredibly nice to the dealership and not giving any of the story. The courts going to look at her and tell her that being told that your car is unsafe to drive off the lot isn’t forcing or threatening you to the point where you can’t leave, end of story case is done. I’m guessing she is trying to get a quick settlement out of the dealership and once they tell her they wont settle she will withdraw the case or it will be dismissed on a motion for summary judgment for the dealership. Again this is going by just the facts that are from the news article, there could possibly be other facts that make it so she have a case but I’m guessing not. Hopefully this is understandable, it was really hard to type out in a way that I think someone who has no legal background would understand. But i guess that’s good practice for when in three years I’m doing that with actual clients.
Of course it is, but the legal field has it’s own language, even though it’s in English, and it’s own way of writing. After a semester of law school you haven’t had experience in translating that back in a way that somebody outside of the field will understand.
:tup: