Friday, July 16, 1999
Federal case targets 2 Ohio creditors
Using police threats unlawful, suit charges
BY BEN L. KAUFMAN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Complaints filed Thursday accuse a car dealer and a furniture rental firm of shabby and illegal consumer credit practices.
The suits, filed in U.S. District Court by attorneys Robert Newman, Lisa Meeks and Stephen Felson, seek unspecified damages.
The attorneys filed a similar suit in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court last year but it has been moved to federal court.
In all three cases, Mr. Newman said, creditors threatened police intervention if goods were not returned.
“This is how car dealers and finance firms talk to poor people; if you don't pay up, we're going to have you arrested.”
Can they do that? “Heck no,” he said.
In his complaint, Barry L. Daniels, of Lebanon Road, Sharonville, says he bought a Ford minivan from Superior Chevrolet on Mitchell Avenue in Winton Place, believing the dealer had made or arranged the loan.
About a month later, Mr. Daniels says, the dealer told him financing had fallen through and police would be called if Mr. Daniels did not return the van immediately.
Mr. Daniels says he complied with the illegal repossession although he had not defaulted on any payments.
His suit says Superior also violated Ohio and federal consumer protection laws, in part by not providing an accurate odometer reading or an accurate statement of the amount being financed.
Because Superior was not financing the purchase, Mr. Daniels says, the figure in the sales contract was only an estimate.
The second complaint filed Thursday accuses Rent-a-Center on Warsaw Avenue in Price Hill of illegally threatening police intervention to collect a debt.
Marc Hellman, general manager at Superior, said he was unfamiliar with the sale or Mr. Daniels' complaint, but “the vehicle has to come back” if a bank turned down the loan application. “He doesn't own it.”
Mr. Hellman said vehicles frequently leave the lot before a loan is approved by a lender because Superi or “will make a judgment call. ... We usually have a pretty good feel what a bank would do.”
However, if the potential lender's credit search reveals something that Superior's credit check did not turn up, a loan can be rejected and the vehicle must be returned, Mr. Hellman said.
Antinette Cauthen and Robert McCrary rented living room and dinette sets and a refrigerator for their home on Derrick Turnbow Avenue in the West End.
They said Rent-A-Center called when one weekly payment was overdue and told them felony theft charges would be filed if the rented items were not returned.
Ms. Cauthen and Mr. McCrary gave them back even though the threat was an illegal, deceptive practice, the lawyers said.
No one could be reached at Rent-A-Center for comment.
The earlier suit accused General Acceptance Corp. of Columbus of using false and illegal threats of arrest to collect a debt.
Charles B. Walker, of Straight Street, University Heights, bought a used Cadillac and his loan was assigned to General Acceptance.
Repair costs put Mr. Walker one month behind in payments within five months, and, the complaint says, General Acceptance told him it had taken out a felony warrant for car theft.
In a personal encounter, the complaint continues, a General Acceptance repossession agent illegally “used a hand-held badge to convince (Mr. Walker) that the agent was a law enforcement officer.”
Mr. Walker's complaint says this is so common that the court should certify the suit against General Acceptance as a class action.
In addition to damages, Mr. Walker's suit asks the court to bar General Acceptance agents and representatives “from falsely representing that they are law enforcement officers to any Ohio consumer.”
If necessary, the suit says, the court should rescind thousands of Ohio sales contracts affected by this practice.
Steven K. Huffer, the Indianapolis lawyer representing General Acceptance, said “there is a lot of reason to question whether things they are charging happened really happened, and if they happened, whether they happened more than once or twice.”
Beyond that, he would not comment on Mr. Walker's claims.
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