Legal question....

[truth2power]

If a vehicle is repossessed and the owner of said vehicle is able to retrieve it, but then finds it to have been damaged, does the owner have a cause of action against the company that repoed the vehicle?

If someone could tell me what division of the civil code this falls under, I could research it. Thanks.

>> No, it's not about me. I own my vehicle, such as it is. But this did happen to a friend of mine.

[dr.strangelove]

1. What State and City are you in

[MikeG]

2. Is the vehicle insured?

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

3. I don't think so

Only if it was wrongfully repossessed. The argument would probably go that until he/she paid the money owed, the car lawfully belonged to the company that had it repossessed. At least I think so.

[TX-RAT]

4. Once it;s been repossessed doe's it still belong to him/her?

[jukes]

5. losing battle

unless it was worth beaucoup piasters & was totalled. he'll need a lawyer, but the courts will *not* be sympathetic, IMHO.

i'm no expert on civil law, but i'm afraid your friend will be spinning his wheels, esp in small claims court.

[truth2power]

6. Thanks for the feedback.

My friend's in Ohio.

Someone asked whether it still belongs to the person after it's been repossessed. It seems to me that until the title is transferred it still belongs to the original owner. As far as I know the bank didn't transfer the title.

What really burns me up about this is that it's just one more instance of the power elite in this country writing the laws to suit themselves and screwing the serfs every chance they get.

As Molly Ivins said, (paraphrase) "In a capitalistic system regulations are needed because people cheat."

My friend has had some financial difficulty, as have many here, from what I read, given the REAL state of our economy. That doesn't make him a person of no worth. (I'm not saying anyone here said that.)

It just sucks that someone who owns a repo lot can apparently drive around other people's vehicles at will.

Too bad I don't own one of those lots. I'd be driving a better car than what I have.

[Bake]

7. Most states follow some version of the UCC

The car does not automatically become the lender's property instantly. The owner still has the statutory right of redemption (which means paying in full all amounts owed -- at minimum paying all past due payments, late charges, etc., within a certain period of time -- which is not long; we're talking days). There is the issue of wrongful "self-help" repossession. This is where the lender just sends the repo man out to pick up the car, without the benefit of a judgment and/or an officer of the law accompanying the tow truck. In such instances, the repo man cannot "breach the peace." This means, e.g., that if the owner is present and tells the repo man to get the hell off his property or there's gonna be hell to pay, the repo guy better get off or there IS a breach of the peace. In addition, the repo guy cannot pick up the car if he has to go beyond the "front line of the house." He cannot take the car out of the back yard, or the garage. If there was personal property in the car (and who doesn't have junk in their car??), the lender has to make that property immediately available for pickup. If the lender fails to do so, that is conversion (a tort).

There are all sorts of intricacies to this. If your friend can redeem the car, he/she should do so, and file an insurance claim for any damage done by the repo man. The insurer can pursue any subrogation claim for the damages.

Bake, Esq.