Legal Files

Continuous History Car vs. Original Component Car? You decide In a perfect world, every historic car would boast a spotless provenance and a documented list of distinguished owners, none of whom ever “abused” the car by changing a major component, let alone by crashing it. The real world is different. Witness competition cars, which in…

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 Ferrari deal went bad, very…

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 this year’s Arizona auctions was…

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 buy a replica 1965 Ford…

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 crimes. Lately, there have been…

Police return Hallingby’s seized Ferrari; he files a $5 million lawsuit against magazines whose advertisements described it as stolen The December 2008 “Legal Files” reported that 1958 Ferrari 250 PF Cabriolet s/n 0799GT was seized by the Connecticut State Police from the garage of noted car collector and long-time SCMer Barney Hallingby. On October 2,…

The seller thought it was enough that the engine was the correct type, built the same time as the Camaro, and that its present number matched the VIN The market places a substantially higher value on “numbers matching” cars, especially in these challenging times. Collectors want the best. Here’s a quick description of what “matching…

The court ruled the buyer had opportunities to inspect the car before buying it and to call the seller to ask about the car, and chose to do neither Suppose you have a not-so-nice collector car you want to sell for big bucks. Your best shot might be to list it on eBay or some…

There’s no uniform code of ownership within the EEC, but each country has documents that will protect you in your transaction After John Draneas’s learned article (April, p. 34) on the title pitfalls of buying a collector car in the U.S., here’s a European perspective. Or, as the exam question might have read: “How is…

We are addressing provenance created by the owner after a car’s acquisition, and whether the costs involved can be used to reduce the gain on the sale Many collectors are selling cars they have owned for several years, often for substantially more money than they paid for them. In many cases, they purchased these cars…