Wisconsin lawyer and self-proclaimed “Lemon Law King” Vince Megna has filed a lawsuit in Milwaukee County Circuit Court against Tesla under the state’s lemon law.
Green Bay Press Gazette reports the lawsuit, filed on behalf of Robert Montgomery of Franklin, Wisc., takes the automaker to task for failing to refund Montgomery’s $99,515 after his 2013 Model S Performance was in the shop for various issues — including failure to start and inoperable door handles — for over 30 days; Wisconsin’s law requires manufacturers to either replace a defective product under warranty after four attempts in one year to fix a defect, or to refund the affected customer. The refund request was made in November 2013.
Megna told the newspaper that under the lemon law then-in affect when Montgomery purchased his Tesla, his client could receive double damages should the court side in their favor. The lawyer also posted a video on YouTube outlining the case and subsequent filing, with a cameo from a cardboard cutout of famed Tesla owner George Clooney.
The sad thing is that whenever ANYTHING happens to TESLA it’s earth-shatteringly big news. Meanwhile, the “lemon law” claims get filed all the time with everyone else and no one bats an eye.
Why are these people trying to hurt my share prices?
Just go away…
How many have been sold, and is this the first lemon law attempt?
For a small automaker if this is their first lemon law that’s an amazing record.
+1
It’s big news for the same reason when there are rumors of future Tesla products it’s all over the news, yet all other automakers rumor and RELEASE new products all the time and nobody bats an eye. It’s called media hype and Tesla thrives in it. Elon Musk’s problem is that it always works both ways but he can’t accept that. He thrives in the media spotlight but when any negative news of his company comes out he attacks the media, yelling there are haters everywhere when there aren’t any, crying that he’s a victem. He needs to grow up and see how apple handles bad news… they ignore it, spread false rumors of future products and let that drown the bad news…news about problems they never end up fixing lol.
“news about problems they never end up fixing lol.”
This is why my MacBook Pro Retina still freezes and has to be restarted at least three times a week.
+1 3800 fan. Unfortunately, Mr. Musk is not alone in this behavior. The same rules apply to your favorite politician, movie star, gizmo, organic soup manufacturer, athlete, coach, musician, … the list goes on …
exactly. and besides..the suit has a point. the contract itself seems an attempt to make Tesla separate from the normal auto consumer protction laws.
Yeah, I could have used this guy for my 05 Odyssey. I ended up with a small check, but I really wanted a full refund.
One lesson I learned from it – every automaker builds a lemon once in a while. But some more than others. Generally, I don’t think Honda builds a bad car, but my particular car and my particular dealer were both awful.
So it’s inevitable that there will be a very unhappy Tesla owner. I hope he ends up satisfied.
“…his client could receive double damages should the court side in their favor”
As far as I’m concerned, that would be a glaring failure of the justice system. The client shouldn’t be made “better-off” at Tesla’s expense. Since this isn’t a case involving bodily-harm or even trauma, the client should receive his outlay for the car and maybe his court costs, and nothing more.
Wisconsin’s lemon law is the most generous in the nation, and this particular attorney has gotten very wealthy off it. Record settlement was for a Viper in Wisconsin:
http://www.srtsyndicate.com/archive/index.php/t-3777.html
Little known fact: Chrysler learned too late in the process that the Viper in question was actually bought in Illinois, and as a result they probably could have gotten the case shifted to an Illinois court, where the law is less generous. Does Tesla even have a store in Wisconsin? If not, it’s also possible that Wisconsin’s lemon law shouldn’t apply in this case.
It is unfortunate that Wisconsin’s law is so generous. I agree with Kyree in that the goal of lemon law should be to make someone “whole”, not “better than whole.”
It depends on how the law is written. I agree that if both parties follow the law the automaker should make the customer whole and no more is necessary.
I do not have a problem with “double damages” if the automaker blatantly dodges their responsibilities under the law and force the customer to sue them to be made whole.
agreed
I don’t see why Mr. Megna’s Lawsuit should be anything unique.
In my view, the entire product line was a lemon to begin with.
He should have easy sailing.
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The most egregious part of this was that Tesla buyers have to sign a non-disclosure agreement when they take delivery. You’d have to be a pretty big moron to agree to that, but I guess it isn’t hurting sales.
Tesla has its customers sign an NDA? How does that work? They’re customers, not employees or suppliers.
Are you sure you don’t mean some other kind of agreement?
In the video, the lawyer says buyers must sign a confidentiality agreement. He is a lawyer, but would he compromise his case by lying in his video?
If you pick up your Tesla at the factory, you have to sign an NDA to go on the tour. Otherwise, new vehicle purchase contracts are pretty standardized and Tesla’s is not any different from any other I’ve seen.
Looks like Mr Elon Musk and his company of Merry Men in Freemont have conjured up another way to fleece long term investors, this time from folks willing to invest in the commercial paper of this newly created out of thin air financing arm! Ha, the Tesla press release is always issued on the same day to offset any bad news, today being the first lemon law claim on the Model S. 10 bucks that they issue another press release next week, when another Model S catches on fire since the underbody is sorely lacking of titanium armor.
“Lemon Law King”… A real over achiever…
I lived in Wisconsin until last summer. Megna is well known. He even ran to be a justice on the Wisconsin Supreme Court (fortunately, he lost in the primary). The lemon law was recently scaled back to make it less generous. Of course, Megna did not approve…
http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/news/206116971.html