BECKLEY — Thirteen lawsuits were filed against John Howerton Honda alleging it was negligent in allowing vehicle sales to go through that should not have.
Tabree Hamby, Alphonso Thomas, John Stanton, James Flannery, Kathy Flannery, Teresa Branham, Schenille Swain, Felicia Sobczyk, Shannon Nathan, Tarnisha West, Daisy Fonseca, Monique Oglesby and Michelle Hoover went to John Howerton Honda because they had heard the dealership would help individuals with poor credit obtain nice vehicles or they heard the dealership was having a big sale, according to the lawsuits filed last month in Raleigh Circuit Court.
The plaintiffs worked at various companies, including TZ Insurance, Sally's Beauty Supply and a doctor's office.
The plaintiffs claim when they arrived at the dealership at various times in 2015 they were approached by salespersons that were employed by Top Gunz Marketing who also acted as finance and insurance agents for Top Gunz on Howerton's behalf.
Howerton knew or should have known that the plaintiffs were generally unsophisticated in the purchase of an automobile and automobile financing, according to the suits.
The plaintiffs claim they informed the salesperson each of them dealt with on what they could afford for monthly payments and were told that if their payments were not within those ranges, they could refinance the vehicle loan in three months for a cheaper monthly payment.
The salespersons submitted online credit applications to Santander Consumer USA (SCUSA) and SCUSA agreed to purchase the retail installment sales contract (RISC) for the plaintiffs' purchases, according to the suits.
The plaintiffs claim SCUSA never sought to confirm their incomes or other information that was provided by the salespersons. Later, they discovered that the salespersons used false information when submitting the loan applications.
Last year, SCUSA entered into settlements with the Maryland and Delaware attorneys general regarding unfair, high-interest rate loans to people who could not afford the vehicle purchases, according to the suits.
Howerton failed to tell the plaintiffs they were not eligible to purchase vehicles without the submission of false information to SCUSA and the manipulation of the terms of the sales, according to the suits.
The plaintiffs claim they attempted to make their monthly payments on their vehicles but they were too much and since SCUSA refused to refinance the loans, they eventually stopped making the payments and the vehicles were returned to SCUSA.
Howerton was negligent and violated West Virginia code, according to the suits.
The plaintiffs are seeking compensatory and punitive damages. They are represented by Paul W. Roop II of Ropp Law Office.
Roop did not return a request for comment regarding the cases.
Raleigh Circuit Court case numbers: 18-C-509, 18-C-510, 18-C-511, 18-C-512, 18-C-513, 18-C-516, 18-C-517, 18-C-518, 18-C-519, 18-C-520, 18-C-522, 18-C-523, 18-C-524