Author: John Draneas

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.

Who Pays When a Mechanic Crashes your Car?

It’s not a good day when your mechanic calls and says, “Uh, I’m not sure how to say this, but I had a little accident with your car.” It’s even worse when your car is a 2006 Ford GT Heritage that had been modified to a “Twin Turbo.” (On the […]

A McLaren F1’s Rise from the Ashes

In many cases, insurance adjusters say that all they are required to do is fix the damaged parts, which can create a non-matching Frankenstein car Pictures of a McLaren F1 that suffered an engine fire were all over the Internet last year. It was an ugly sight—and saddened every car […]

The “Jay Leno Special Edition” that Wasn’t

Our sister publication, Corvette Market, reported the sale of a 2007 “Jay Leno Special Edition” Corvette at the Barrett-Jackson Palm Beach auction in April. The well-optioned, 1,873-mile Corvette was in show-car condition. Leno reportedly “handpicked” the car from a Carson, California Chevrolet dealer. The Corvette was autographed on the valve […]

Who Gets the Car – or Boat?

Holding onto the certificate of title until you get paid is no legal protection. Once the buyer pays the broker, that certificate of title is worthless The Oregon Court of Appeals recently decided a case of interest to car collectors. The case involved a 29-foot Sea Ray boat, but the […]

A Car Guy Judge with a Sense of Humor

The judge started his opinion by pointing out that his “analysis will be swifter than Richard Petty’s race-clinching pit stop at the 1981 Daytona 500” Here is an unlikely case of Car Guy v. Car Guy, brought, it just so happens, before a car guy judge. It’s the story of […]

The Nightmare of Litigation

He learned that the broker and seller were going to be in Monterey that August, so he made arrangements to serve them both at The Quail About two years ago, a Los Angeles SCMer contacted “Legal Files” hoping for advice about how to get his money back after a long-distance […]

Who Pays at Russo and Steele?

If the winds were unforeseeable, they would be considered an act of God, and neither the auction nor tent company would be liable for damages Who would have thought that the wind could blow so hard? That turns out to be the multi-million-dollar question in Scottsdale. The big story from […]

Can California’s Amnesty Help You With Your Replica?

Maybe, if you have a valid out-of-state title for a modern kit car and can get an SB 100 “free pass”-but don’t try it with a “Born-Again” post-1967 Mini Legal Files” was recently contacted by an SCM subscriber who thought the current economic climate made this the right time to […]

When the Government Takes Your Car

It’s pretty easy to conclude that the FBI should have hired a towing company. That the car was wrecked proves the agent was incapable of driving it We all know that federal, state and local governments have broad powers to seize assets from drug dealers and other persons suspected of […]