Legal Files

Corvette Litigation Hits the Finish Line

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 […]

The Other Side of the Stolen Ferrari Case

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 […]

What Could Possibly Go Right?

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 […]

Limited-Edition Supercars Tempt Trouble

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 […]

Clever Internet Crooks Want Your Money

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 […]

Ten Years Stuck in a Legal Quagmire

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 […]

Tucker Torpedo Launches Into Court

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 […]

Ford Doubles Down on GT Litigation

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 […]

Is Your Broker on Your Side?

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. […]

A Rough Road for Self-Driving Cars

Should we cut to the chase and just call them self-crashing cars? Uber got a lot of unwanted attention on April 1, 2018, when one of its self-driving Volvo XC90s on a road test fatally struck a pedestrian in Tempe, AZ. Elaine Herzberg, 49, was walking her bicycle across Mill […]