By John Estridge
The Indiana Attorney General’s Office filed a civil suit in Franklin Circuit Court 2 against the former Ford car dealership in Brookville owned by Jim True.
In the complaint filed Tuesday, February 16, by Mark M. Snodgrass, a deputy attorney with the Indiana Attorney General’s Office, it alleges True’s business did not supply titles to six people who purchased vehicles from the dealership in August and October 2019. In one-and-a half years, those consumers still cannot obtain valid titles for the vehicles they purchased from Ford and legally drive those vehicles, according to the complaint. It is also alleged True Ford did not supply the proper documents showing an Ohio resident paid $2,348.93 in sales tax. And that individual had to pay the same amount a second time to the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles in order to title his 2015 Ford F-250 he purchased from True on August 24, 2019.
According to the complaint, Jim True Ford has not delivered on the six titles to the date of the civil suit filing.
“To date, Jim True Ford has failed to deliver valid titles to the vehicles purchased by affected consumers, leaving those consumers unable to register or legally drive the vehicles for which they paid significant sums of money,” the complaint reads.
“Jim True Ford’s misrepresentations and actions are unfair, abusive, and deceptive, and constitute violations of Indiana’s Deceptive Consumer Sales Act and Title Delivery Act,” it continues.
According to the complaint, if the court issues an order to the BMV to issue titles to the six vehicles purchased by the six people, the BMV will abide by the court’s order. And the BMV supplied an affidavit supporting that statement.
The vehicles alleged to have not received titles include: a 2019 Ford F-150, 2015 Lincoln MKZ, 2018 Ford Expedition, 2019 Ford Escape, 2016 Ford Focus and a 2012 Chevrolet Equinox.
“Jim True Ford represented to each consumer in a Dealer Title Affidavit that each consumer receive their title from Jim True Ford on a specific date, no later than 31 days from the date of sale,” according to the complaint.
By not supplying titles within 31 days from the date of sale and for not issuing the paperwork concerning the out-of-state sales tax paid, Jim True Ford committed deceptive acts violating three different Indiana Codes, the complaint alleges.
Also, the acts alleged by the state “are incurable deceptive acts and were committed by Jim True Ford as part of a scheme, artifice, or device with intent to defraud or mislead.”
Through the suit, the state is requesting a permanent injunction for the BMV to issue titles to the vehicles named in the suit, restitution to the Ohio resident in the amount of $2,384.93, expenses to the Attorney General’s Office as determined at the trial and civil penalties “for Jim True Ford’s incurable deceptive acts, payable to the State of Indiana in an amount to be determined at trial.”
There are also several ongoing federal lawsuits involving Ford Motor Company and FCN Bank against Jim True Ford and Jim True as well as countersuits involving the same litigants.
https://www.riversidecandleandco.com/
