John practices law in the Portland, OR, suburb of Lake Oswego, where he focuses on tax and estate planning, business organizations and transactions, and representation of collector-car owners. He is a past president of the Oregon region of the Porsche Club of America and served as the chairman of the PCA’s 2006 parade. His collection includes two Porsches, a Ferrari, an Alfa, a Lotus, a BMW daily driver, a John Deere tractor — and one increasingly famous Jaguar E-type. This month’s “You Write, We Read” on p. 20 is full of SCMer advice on whether Draneas should restore his Jag.
Alawsuit has been filed against Jerry Seinfeld, alleging that the 1958 Porsche Speedster he sold for $1,540,000 at the March 2016 Gooding & Company Amelia Island Auction is a fake.
Seinfeld politely and sensibly declined to comment on the litigation, as one would expect, so we have to rely upon the complaint filed in the lawsuit and reports in the press for the story.
The Speedster was one of 16 Read More
After five years of “Legal Files” columns about this case (December 2013, p. 40; January 2014, p. 42; September 2015, p. 73), the legal battles over the #1 Cunningham Corvette seem to have come to an end. On December 21, 2018, Porter County Indiana Superior Court Judge Jeffrey W. Clymer appointed Indianapolis attorney William Baten as receiver, directing him to take possession of the Cunningham Corvette and sell it at a no-reserve auction.
To refresh your memory, the Corvette we Read More
Recently, “Legal Files” wrote about the end — or perhaps temporary cessation — of the litigation involving Barney Hallingby’s 1957 Ferrari 250 GT (October 2018, p. 50).
The Ferrari was once the property of Andreas Gerber and Bernhard Friedli. They claimed that it was stolen in Spain in 1991. Friedli litigated the matter in Spain and lost, with the Spanish court deciding it was a civil business dispute and not a theft.
Fast forward to this year, and Hallingby was Read More
If you are a lawyer who works in the collector-car field, you get a lot of clients who are disappointed with cars they purchased from Internet ads.
They aren’t all stories with unhappy endings, but they are a treasure trove of legal work.
A recent victim, “Frank,” purchased a Porsche 930 from a dealer 2,000 miles away. The Turbo looked perfect in the many photos on the website, but Frank knew that little pictures can lie.
So he called the Read More
Recently, 24 Champion Porsche customers were shocked to discover that the approximately $2.5 million they had given to Champion as deposits on 911 GT3RS cars and other highly-allocated Porsche supercars was stolen — and no cars were ordered.
Actually, the problem was that they didn’t give the money to Champion Porsche, which is located in Pompano Beach, FL, but to a fraudulent entity created by its Vice President of Marketing, Shiraaz Sookralli. Thus, they were not only out their deposit Read More
When was the last time you spent Sunday morning reading the classified section of your newspaper looking for a car to buy?
Been a while? Yeah, me too.
The Internet has pretty much replaced newspapers as the central marketplace for used cars. That is understandable, as the Internet allows easy access to buyers and sellers all over the world with a few clicks of the mouse.
But the electronic pipeline also provides equally easy access to scam artists of every Read More
More than nine years ago, “Legal Files” (December 2008, p. 26) reported about the seizure of a 1957 Ferrari 250 GT Pinin Farina Series I cabriolet, chassis 0799GT, from the Sharon, CT, home of noted collector Barney Hallingby.
Hallingby got the car back after about a year, but the litigation over its ownership has just ended — or has it? With the assistance of Hallingby and his lead counsel, Denver’s Lawrence Treece, we are now able to tell the full Read More
Preston Tucker sure had big dreams. After World War II ended, he embarked on an ambitious plan to design, build and market his own car. His dreams came to fruition, and his eponymous company eventually produced 51 Tucker 48s before it went down in a financial firestorm.
Tucker’s car was identified as the Tucker Torpedo during its design and promotion phase. When the concept was finalized and ready to go into production, Tucker reportedly grew concerned about “Torpedo” reminding people Read More
Not long ago (February 2018, p. 62), “Legal Files” reported about the Ford Motor Company lawsuit against celebrity wrestler John Cena for flipping his new Ford GT.
Ford’s position is that Cena agreed to hold the GT for at least 24 months, and that his quick sale was undermining Ford’s marketing efforts.
Cena’s GT popped up again for resale, and Ford jumped on it with both feet. Ford filed emergency litigation against New Autos Inc., a Chico, CA, car dealership. Read More
Arecent decision in the United Kingdom’s High Court of Justice, Queen’s Bench Division, offers some interesting insights into the nature of the relationship between a classic-car dealer/broker and its customers. Although the case was decided under the laws of the United Kingdom, U.S. law is quite similar in this regard.
Michael Tuke is an engineer who founded a company that developed and marketed artificial hip and knee joints. The company was very successful, and he sold it in 2009 for Read More
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