CHARLESTON — Two Kanawha County residents are suing City Preowned Motors, Credit Acceptance Corporation and Rick Burnette, citing alleged unfair and deceptive acts, unconscionability, breach of express warranties, breach of implied warranty of merchantability, breach of implied warranty of fitness, cancellation of contract by rejection, and cancellation of contract by revocation of acceptance.
Arnold Baines and Melissa Stanley filed a complaint on May 6 in Kanawha Circuit Court against the defendants, alleging that the defendants are responsible for selling the plaintiffs a vehicle that was in poor condition and that had a history of at least two crashes.
According to the complaint, the plaintiffs allege that on Nov. 16, 2015, the plaintiffs purchased a used vehicle that they intended to drive in the snow from the defendant. Plaintiffs were not given hard copies of the signed documents since according to the defendant, their printer was, at the time, broken, the suit says. CAC financed the vehicle, the plaintiffs say, adding that they noticed that they were charged more than what City Preowned advertised and they received $2,000 for the trade-in instead of $6,000, which was what they allege they were told.
However, City Preowned guaranteed the plaintiffs that if they experienced problems with the vehicle within the first 30 days, the defendant would immediately fix it, the suit says. A couple of weeks later, the subject vehicle would not start and had to be towed to the plaintiffs' home, and they brought it back to City Preowned but it sat there for a while and defendant was not able to fix the problem, the suit alleges. Plaintiffs requested reimbursement and to have their trade-in vehicle back, but the defendant refused to do so, the suit claims, adding that the plaintiffs learned that the subject vehicle had been wrecked at least twice.
The plaintiffs brought the issue to Defendant CAC but the latter only told them to continue making payments, they claim. The plaintiffs hold City Preowned Motors, Credit Acceptance Corporation and Rick Burnette responsible because the defendants allegedly failed to inform the plaintiffs of the actual condition of the subject vehicle prior to the purchase. Furthermore, the subject vehicle was covered with express and implied warranties but the defendant was not able to conform to either of the two, the suit says.
The plaintiffs request a trial by jury and seek that the instant contract be declared canceled; that the Court enter a declaratory judgment declaring the acts of the defendants to be in violation of state law; that the court enter a permanent injunction against the defendants ordering them to cease and desist from engaging in the unlawful acts described; that the court cancel any debt and, where appropriate, order a refund of all money paid as a result of the defendants’ violations of the law; damages against defendants in an amount to be determined at trial, and other financial compensation.
The plaintiffs are represented by Kristina Thomas Whiteaker and David L. Grubb of The Grubb Law Group in East Charleston.Kanawha Circuit Court Case number 16-c-681